The Uncontrollable and The Impossible
by Death By Verbicide
Summary: A brilliant new scientist with a mysterious past joins STAR Labs. However, her life takes a dark turn after she begins to investigate further into the secrets of Central City, Harrison Wells, STAR Labs, and the friendly but distant Barry Allen - and discovers the truth about her past. Things get worse when she learns that the Reverse Flash wants her, and the Flash, dead.
1. Welcome to Central City

**AUTHOR'S NOTE: I started drafting and writing this story before Season 2 began, but unfortunately did not have the means to publish the story until late January 2016. By then, Season 2 was in full swing, and so was my college life, so by the time I caught up with Season 2, I realized that there are a LOT of parallels and coincidences between what happens in my fanfic, and what happens in the show :(**

 **All I'm saying is - everything you read is my own work. The storyline, the OC's, their abilities and what happens to them - everything save for the original settings of Central City/Starling City/Gotham, and the original DC characters - are mine. I had this story written long before I found this site and began publishing it, which is also before the start of Season 2.**

 **Regardless, I hope you enjoy what I have in store, and I thank you for taking the time to read my story :)))**

* * *

If there is anything I have learned in my life, it's that one should always be prepared for the unexpected.

Nothing momentous will ever go as planned. You'll have one goal in mind, one that you'll do anything to achieve. You'll fight, you'll struggle, you'll never give up. You will sleep in the shadow of your hopes and dreams at night, and live to accomplish them by day. But when something throws you off, when an obstacle embeds itself in your path, when something impossible surprises you and has the potential to destroy everything you've ever worked for, everything you've ever known, your reaction and mindset towards it will have a powerful influence over what that certain obstacle will do to you. The best thing to do is to try and overcome it using your own strength and courage without giving up, depending on others if necessary.

But when you give in and accept defeat, then you have truly lost all hope.

###

At the current moment, I was debating over whether or not I was fully prepared for my job interview this morning.

Roughly three months before I would have completed my undergraduate studies and receive my degrees, I had received an email from someone named Caitlin Snow that not only congratulated me on behalf of my "incoming momentous achievement," but also inquired as to whether or not I would be interested in visiting her in Central City, and being interviewed for a position at the lab facility where she worked. Snow said that her own employer had been on the lookout for new recruits who would be willing to work at their prestigious, albeit very exclusive, private research lab, and that I had stood out to her employer as the most promising, and I was asked to come right away. I saw it as a probable opportunity to start working early right after college ended, and accepted her offer. Her email was soon followed by the arrival of paid plane tickets to Central City in the mail, along with keys to a hotel room booked for the afternoon right after I would graduate.

Well then, I had thought, whoever she was and whoever she was working for - they were prompt.

Having checked in to the Central City Grand Hotel only a few hours earlier this morning, I barely had any time to organize my few belongings in my room before the interview. I hurriedly showered and dressed into a bland floral blouse and a black pantsuit, and retrieved from my laptop bag a portfolio which contained several copies of my resume, thesis, research notes, and any other works I thought would be worth showing my potential employer. I slipped my feet into a pair of dress shoes, grabbed my wallet and phone, and I was off.

The address Snow had left in her email led me to a huge dark building with glass panels circling outwards, and several power auxiliary towers leaning above the uniquely structured building below. A sign at the entrance read, in plain, lit lettering:

 **Scientific and Technology Advanced Research Labs**

Wait, I thought, pausing to look at the sign again.

Scientific and Technology Advanced Research Labs? As in, STAR Labs? _The_ STAR Labs? The world-reknown facility established by the lengendary Dr. Harrison Wells, the mastermind behind the particle accelerator?

 _I_ was being recruited to STAR Labs - one of the greatest private research institutes in the country, possibly the world? Oh god...

" _My employer was greatly interested in hiring you to come work as a physicist at his private laboratory, located in Central City..._ "

 _Private laboratory._

 _Central City._

How could I have been so stupid as to not put the two terms together? How on Earth did I miss this? The realization that I was going to be interviewed by STAR Labs, the fact that I didn't even _know_ I was going to be doing so, and the fact that I didn't even prepare for this interview properly did a rather excellent job of turning my stomach.

I took a deep breath and pushed open the revolving door, and entered the building. The entrance opened up to a tunnel-like walkway lined with dark walls that curved to the right. I imagined it was similar to walking inside a black, sharp-edged spiral seashell. I continued walking until, a few feet before I arrived at my destination, I heard voices arguing. Against my own will, I paused in the hallway and listened.

"I'm sorry. There was nothing I could've done about it," a young man protested.

"Mr. Allen, we will discuss your failure later. Right now, I've got other priorities at hand. You should have known better than to be foolish in a moment as critical as that one," an older man replied, clearly disappointed.

"Look, you've got to believe me. I couldn't have -"

"Hey guys, if you don't mind, she's almost here," a third male voice warned. The two arguing voices silenced themselves. I heard someone - a woman, it seemed - sigh.

I took it as my cue to proceed into a circular room, where I saw four people before me, two standing, one leaning against the wall in the shadows behind them, with the last seated in a motorized wheelchair.

"Hi. I'm here for an interview?" I asked, keeping my voice clipped and polite.

"You must be Artemis Van Kleiss. It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person," said a chirpy, young woman only a few years older than me. She was pretty, with light, cool makeup, kind eyes and sleek brown hair, and wore a business-style dress under a lab coat, holding a clipboard in one hand. The other hand was held out towards me, open for a handshake.

"I've heard a lot of good things about you. I'm Caitlin Snow. I'm the one who reached out to you."

I smiled at her and shook her hand.

"Pleased to meet you, Ms. Snow," I said, adding a smile. I turned to the Hispanic man standing beside her, with shoulder-length black hair and a big smile. He was wearing a graphic shirt with jeans, and was also holding out a hand to greet me.

"My name's Francisco Ramon, but you can just call me Cisco," he said calmly, "I'm a mechanical engineer here."

"It's nice to meet you as well, Cisco," I said, shaking his hand.

I turned to the figure seated in the wheelchair. He was a man of about 50 or 60, but looked young for his age. He was wearing a plain black sweater with dark jeans, and had a pair of Ray Bans prescription glasses resting on his nose. His head was covered with tufts of short, wispy black hair. He studied me with harsh, blue eyes.

I had seen those features pictured so many times before in newspaper articles, on TV, and once on a poster in my college dorm. During my freshman year, he was a guest speaker at our school to discuss the importance of the particle accelerator and renewable, clean energy.

He had been a close friend of my parents, and I could barely control my excitement.

"Oh god - Dr. Harrison Wells! It is such an honor to meet you - to see you again!" I had not known I would be meeting the great scientist in person. I stepped forward and shook his hand as well.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, it's great to have finally met you as well, after all these years. I've been keeping up to date with how you've been," he said, removing his glasses and wiping the lens with the hem of his shirt. He replaced his glasses, and look back at me, and smiled, "I apologize for calling you over so quickly after your graduation, but distinguished scientists such as ourselves don't seem to get breaks, now, do we? May I ask what you thought of your experience at MIT?"

Was this part of the interview? I sure hoped not...

"Oh - it was what I expected it to be. Lots of studying, lots of science, lots of lab work. Pretty educational. It was alright. I actually enjoyed it very much."

I cringed.

Barely three minutes in, and I was already sounding like an idiot in front of one of the greatest physicists to ever exist.

Dr. Wells chuckled.

"Oh dear. That must be the biggest understatement of the year. You double majored in biochemical engineering and applied physics, and yet managed to graduate within three years, summa cum laude, no less. You're #4 on NationFirst's annual 'Top 100 College Students to Look Out For' article. You were one of two recipients of the Simiens Aware for Advanced Placement out of everyone in the entire country, despite not having a home for a good duration of your pre-college academic career. You lost both of your parents at a very young age, something most children _never_ seem to get past, and yet you've done truly amazing things in your life of 21 years that most adults don't accomplish by the time they die. _'Alright'_ is quite the misnomer here."

Umm... Did one of my idols just praise me? When I blurted out an idiot answer? He was impressed?

Not bad... _  
_

Caitlin, who had been scribbling notes on the clipboard she was holding, stopped and looked up.

"Wait... Dr. Wells, did you say she didn't have a home?" She asked in quiet astonishment, "You - you were homeless?"

 _That_ was taken out of context fast.

I felt heat rush to my cheeks, and found myself unable to make eye contact with her out of embarrassment.

My past had been no less than difficult, and people always tended to ask about it as if I shouldn't have survived it.

"No, not homeless. I'd been placed in several foster homes after the death of my parents when I was six years old, but I found myself running away a lot, only to be placed in another. At some point, my father's lawyer forced me to get my act together and kept a strict watch over me during high school."

"Your parents died when you were six?" she asked softly, shock still brimming her tone.

"Yes." I couldn't hide my discomfort, and bit my bottom lip nervously.

I wasn't exactly prepared to share details of my past with people I didn't know. Caitlin must have noticed my uneasiness, because she finally looked away from me and went back to her clipboard. I could tell she felt bad. I didn't blame her.

"Well, we're really glad to have you regardless of how you got here. It can't hurt to have a scientist by the name of Van Kleiss here, can it?" Cisco stated, with a reassuring laugh. He was trying to break the tension in the room. I appreciated it, and smiled at him.

"Would you happen to be related to Dr. Laurus Van Kleiss in any way? That surname is unbelievably uncommon."

"Oh, uhh, yeah, I am," I looked away, again. I a _lways_ got this question. I cursed under my breath, put my smile back on, and faced the team.

"I'm his daughter."

Caitlin and Cisco definitely seemed taken aback by my response. Even the shady guy standing in the shadows with his arms crossed seemed surprised. Dr. Wells smiled his harsh smile in the general direction they were standing in, without looking directly at any one of them.

"Surely you two recall the unsolved murders of Laurus and Ariadne Van Kleiss? Yes, you both were young when it happened, but the story made international news, for Christ's sake," Wells' muttered, his steady voice slowly becoming enraged, "The girl just mentioned the death of her parents moments ago. It's not everyday I hire someone. I would have expected my only two scientists to have read up on their new colleague before meeting her instead of asking her uncomfortable questions and giving her a distasteful first impression of our lab. _Absolutely_ disgraceful."

He turned to me.

"I'm truly very sorry for making you go through this, Ms. Van Kleiss. I had not expected our first meeting to be executed so poorly, and so awkwardly. I solemnly apologize on behalf of my associates."

Caitlin and Cisco both wore faces of shame and embarrassment.

"Oh, it's not an issue, Dr. Wells. I don't mind. I -"

"Ms. Van Kleiss, I appreciate your consideration, but my associates - and your potential teammates - ought to know how to show respect. Are you two just going to stand there and hang your heads or will you actually apologize for your foolishness?" Wells barked.

Caitlin and Cisco both made brief eye contact with me and murmured apologies. I assured them it wasn't an issue.

"Now then, Ms. Van Kleiss, you'll be working with Caitlin, our lab geneticist, and Cisco, our mechanical engineer, to help create technology that can be used by the CCPD to keep this city safer. Your knowledge of physics, and your engineering expertise along with its biological and chemical applications, will be key to my lab. You mentioned earlier that you were here for an interview. I was wrong to call it that."

"I'm not here for an interview?" I asked in confusion.

Dr. Wells chuckled lightly.

"No. You, of all people, do not need to be interviewed. The world has seen what you can do, what you're capable of. In all the years that I have been a scientist, I can confidently say I have never seen anyone with so much promise, with such sharp intelligence. Never have you allowed your struggles to weigh you down," he explained, smiling kindly.

"I think you'll enjoy working at my lab. You'll have full access to the facility, and whatever means you need to accomplish your task - I will always support it. This was never an interview, Ms. Van Kleiss. I see you've brought files that no doubt containing your resume and work you've done at MIT and beyond. I don't need to see it. Your thesis on the molecular applications of the _ecfrenatus_ particle was absolutely groundbreaking. You've done more than enough to emphasize your expertise in science, Ms. Van Kleiss. The job is, and always has been, yours. Whether you accept it or not is your decision."

My heart skipped a beat. I was at a loss for words.

His praise was addicting, and he was so kind and supportive, and this lab - it was just so _stunning._

"You only have two staff members?" I asked, suddenly noticing how empty the giant facility was. With such a famous name, I had expected there to be full company.

"No. I prefer to keep a small circle. The workload can be rather tremendous, but Caitlin, Cisco, and yourself are more than qualified for the job. Your passion for science is strong. Your work is a reward in and of itself."

"No kidding." I said, with a smile, and helped myself to a look around the facility.

I finally acknowledged the man standing behind the trio, leaning against the back wall. He was wearing a brown coat with a green plaid shirt under, paired with jeans. His brown hair was loosely slicked back, and I could tell by how his green eyes were staring at nowhere in particular that he was deep in thought, unimpressed with the conversation happening before him.

He couldn't have been any older than Caitlin and Cisco. He had been silent throughout my entire visit here.

He must have been the one I heard arguing with Dr. Wells before I entered the room. He finally made eye contact with me.

"Who are you?" I asked cautiously. The figure looked at me and straightened his posture, standing at his full height. Even at a few feet away, I could tell he was at least a whole head or so taller than me. Heck, he was the tallest one in the room. He stepped forward.

"My name is Barry Allen. I'm a forensic scientist working with the CCPD. I report to STAR Labs when we need tech to take down metahumans." His voice trailed off as he completed his statement. Clearly, he was _not_ interested in conversing with me.

"Meta - what?"

"Metahumans. Ten months ago, Dr. Wells' particle accelerator exploded, and released a dark matter shock wave that traveled in a fifty mile radius, covering almost the entire city. Most people went unaffected. However, the small portion of the population that _was_ ended up developing inhuman abilities that, unfortunately, they are not able to control, which causes them to become a threat to our city. The technology produced here is used to stop them, which is why your work here has the power to save the city," he explained, with reluctance in his voice.

I had heard of the particle accelerator's explosion, and knew it was a huge tragedy for the city - but I had presumed it was nothing more than a technical malfunction which costed a good amount of money. I didn't know it biologically affected humans.

This town was cursed with the effects of nuclear fallout with m _etahumans._ It felt like something out of a sci-fi movie.

"Wow. That's incredible."

STAR Labs, it seemed, had so much more going on than it let the world see. I could tell this would be one extremely promising opportunity. Inventing technology that would be put to use right before our lives, working alongside the great Dr. Harrison Wells. Heck, working with Dr. Wells - no, _him_ asking _you_ to work for him - was more than enough reason to work here.

"Dr. Wells, I accept your offer. It would be of the highest honor to contribute to the amazing work you're doing here."

Wells beamed. Cisco cheered and high-fived Caitlin, who was also smiling at me.

"Yessss, we've got ourselves a new recruit!" Cisco hailed. Clearly, he was the friendliest one here, "Welcome to STAR Labs, Artemis!"

"Thank you, Ms. Van Kleiss. Trust me, it's a bigger honor for _me_ to able to work with _you,"_ Dr. Wells remarked, _"_ Your father was a good friend of mine. It will be nice to work with him again, in a sense. Come see me again tomorrow morning, and we'll further discuss your onboarding."

I smiled and thanked him yet again.

"Now, if any of you need me, I'll be in my office. Mr. Allen - a word with you, please?" He asked sternly, focused his attention on the tall guy but maneuvered his wheelchair so it faced a room by the left wall, clearly indicating for Barry to follow him. A cell phone went off somewhere in the room. Barry patted his pockets and retrieved a smartphone from his pocket, silencing it.

"Sorry, sir. Joe needs me. I'll be back before the end of the day, though," Barry apologized, looking to the man in the wheelchair for approval.

"Very well, Mr. Allen," and with that, Wells had wheeled himself away into his office, shutting the door behind him.

Barry replaced his phone in his coat pocket, gave Caitlin and Cisco a nod, then began to walk towards the tunnel hallway to leave. He stopped for a second when he reached me, and held out his hand.

"Congrats on joining STAR Labs, Artemis." he said with a half-hearted smile.

I attempted a grin, and reached out to shake his hand, before a strong static shock was emitted from his skin and pierced into my palm.

I flinched, and clutched my hand.

"Umm," Barry regarded with confused concern,"Are you alright?"

Judging by the easiness in Barry's voice, I doubt he felt what I just felt.

Did I imagine the tiny jolt of electricity?

It certainly didn't feel that way - it must've just been a little static electricity.

"No, no," I answered easily, quickly shaking his hand and forcing a smile, "Just static, that's all."

Barry gave me a strange look, and pressed his lips in a contrite smile, before turning and walking down the hallway.

I looked back at Cisco and Caitlin, both of whom wore scared looks on their faces, studying my reaction.

"I - Artemis, is everything okay? You seem shaken," Caitlin implored with a nervous laugh. I cleared my throat to eliminate any fear that would otherwise show itself in my voice.

"Nothing. I ... just can't believe I made it here. That's all." My voice was still shaking.

I chastised myself under my breath.

Cut it out, cut it out, _cut it out._ You don't want your new coworkers to think you're a sociopath who has never shaken a hand before. I took a small breath and tried to smile at them confidently. They bought it. Cisco gave me an approving smile. The worry in Caitlin's eyes seemed to melt.

"Well, we're all really glad to have you here. It's been a while since we had the chance to work with someone other than just the three of us. I hope you'll really enjoy it here," Cisco assured, giving me a kind grin as he casually stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Why? What happened to the other scientists here?"

Dammit, the fear was creeping its way back into my voice. Something was terribly offset here, and these people were doing a good job of covering it. Why did my hand feel so numbed, so shocked when it came into contact with Barry Allen's? Was it related to the reason why Wells was yelling at Barry before I arrived? Was he one of those _metahumans_?

What on _earth_ was happening here?

"Oh, well... They were kind of vaporized into oblivion when the particle accelerator blew up... Come on, I'll walk you out."


	2. Bernie Allen

I met up with Dr. Wells the next morning to discuss my commencement at STAR Labs as he had asked, and we worked out the details of my incoming move to the city.

I took a seat on one of the chairs in front of his messy desk.

For such a large work area, it was rather dimly lit. The only light was from a dusty desk lamp on the front desk and the screensaver of the monitor on one of the other desks at the right wall.

There was another desk at the left wall, and a clear chalkboard in the back of the room. All three desks were littered with papers, notebooks, charts, blueprints and other various diagrams, and a thousand pencils and pens in total. The left desk also held miniature models of several of Dr. Wells' inventions, including one which I recognized to be the famed particle accelerator. The right desk held what looked like broken futuristic weapons, with a chart at the top that read "HOW TO SAFELY WEAKEN METAHUMANS" and had several crossed out drawings of various types of guns and military-esque machinery.

"Now, then, Ms. Van Kleiss, I trust you're enjoying your stay here?" Wells asked, moving a huge mound of paperwork off of the center of his desk to make space. He pulled out an aged red journal and opened it to a fresh page, which he marked with a date and titled "List for Artemis."

"Yes. So far, I really do admire Central City. It's even better than how it's described in the news and on the internet."

My first impression of the city was that it was _clean_. Not a speck of grease or dirt anywhere. And the people seemed extremely amiable too - smiling families and groups of friends were seen walking down every sidewalk. The roads were lined with business buildings, several kinds of restaurants, shops, and many, many parks. The city seemed safe, and it was already beginning to seem like the perfect place to live.

It _hardly_ resembled a town ravaged by nuclear fallout.

Wells gave a kind laugh in response to my words.

"That's good to hear. We want you to work with us for a very long time. You have a lot to offer. But first, let's get you started. When would you like to move to the city and begin working?"

"Actually, I can start working whenever you need me to. I've been looking forward to this job for quite some time and didn't really planned for anything else. I could actually come on down by next week, if you'd really like."

Wells smiled in amazement.

"Really? Wow, that's music to my ears. We've got everything set up for you here, other than your living requirements. Any particular conditions or preferences, as to where you'd like to live?"

Conditions and preferences? Where I'd like to live?

Why would my employer be asking me about those kinds of things?

"Um, I'll most likely be getting an apartment."

"Any particular area in the city you'd prefer?"

"Someplace not too far from the lab and not too far from the downtown area would be fine. I don't own a car yet, so I'll suffice on foot or by bus so far," I answered, slightly confused.

Wells's eyes twinkled fondly.

"Well, you won't believe how fast this place will grow on you. Things start looking up pretty quickly around here. I promise you you'll find yourself adjusting after a small period of time."

He maneuvered his wheelchair to the computer on the desk by the right wall, and shook the mouse to wake his computer up from sleep mode. He started typing something into a search engine and called me over when he received results.

"Would this do? This is the Cloverleaf Apartment Complex. They lease town-homes as well, if you're interested. The apartments and town-homes both are some of the most luxurious ones in the city, with fair proximity to both the lab and downtown as well. As an added bonus, it's a gated community and is in the safest area of the city. I think you'll like it here. Caitlin and Cisco live here too. You won't be far from them." He clicked through photos of the apartment homes, with shots of the gorgeous surrounding community as well.

"Oh, I -"

"Trust me, this is where you would want to live when you move here. When I first got here, I lived in a shack in the South District with no electricity and on/off plumbing. For a newbie, this is as good as it gets," he said with a light laugh, "I'll have an apartment leased for you before you arrive next week."

He reached over and began jotting notes down in the open notebook on the other desk.

What?! He was _leasing_ me my own place?

Most employers force you to shell out on your own.

"Oh wow, thank you, Dr. Wells. This is so kind of -"

"Will you require a moving van? For your furniture and other items?"

"I - no, sir." I said, surprised at the realization that I would not have much to move into my new home.

I had literally just graduated college the day before yesterday. The years before, I was moved from foster home to foster home. I didn't _own_ furniture.

"Ms. Van Kleiss?" Wells's voice shook me out of my thoughts. "How will you transport all of your belongings?" he asked with shock.

"Suitcases?" I replied, nervously, hoping he'd buy it. He skeptically studied me for a moment, then turned a bit pitiful.

"Oh - I see. You've been living in dormitories for most of your life, what with college and all. Don't worry. You can go with Caitlin or Cisco to pick some things out for yourself. I'll take care of the rest," he remarked matter-of-factly, scribbling more notes into the book.

"What? Dr. Wells, you don't need to do this for me! I can-"

"Ms. Van Kleiss, you're a very kind and considerate person. You've taken on well after your parents in that manner. Both were incredibly good-hearted and selfless people. But I need for you to keep your head in the game here at STAR Labs. I can't have you worrying about how you'll live, eat, and sleep in an apartment that doesn't have any furniture when I am more than capable of solving that issue for you," he said in a kind, but firm, tone.

He gave a light chuckle. "Consider it a gift on my behalf for you starting your work here so early."

I was left awe-struck.

"Sir, this means a lot to me. I can't thank you enough for going out of your way to do this for me." I sat back down in the chair on the other side of the desk.

Wells and I discussed a few more details of my moving before I thanked him and left the lab. We, or rather, he had successfully arranged where I would live, my finances, and had also gave me a new healthcare provider as well as most of my insurance plans, and most importantly, signed my work contract - legally binding me to my new job. I hoped it wouldn't matter much - STAR Labs seemed like the best place on Earth to work. We had also discussed my salary. Wells, being the kind, sharp old man that he was, allowed for me to name my pay. I told him a starting salary would be more than sufficient.

Wells' idea of a starting salary?

A "mere" $180,000/year.

I left the lab feeling a bit ashamed that someone had to do so much for me. I promised myself I would work hard for him and actively contribute to make up for his excessive generosity, and also so he wouldn't feel that he was wasting his efforts and money on a disappointment. I would make him proud, and I would accomplish much here.

I was lost in thought as I was walking through the bustling downtown area to my hotel, when I heard someone call out my name from far away.

"Hey! Artemis!"

I stopped and looked around. Everyone around me was walking, minding their own business.

I didn't even know anyone here.

Who could've called for me?

"Over here!"

On the other side of the crosswalk stood a tall man with neat, copper-colored hair, wearing a brown overcoat with a white dress shirt and plain black tie under. It was the guy from yesterday who gave me the weird handshake - what was his name? Bertie?

He was smiling and gesturing me over.

Oh no, I thought. There is _no_ way I am going back to greet you.

He walked towards the crosswalk on the other side of the street, and when the signal opened, began strolling towards me. Without thinking, I joined the crowd of people crossing the street and began towards him.

 _No, no, no!_ My brain's alarm system went off, _You aren't supposed to walk towards the strange electric handshake guy! Turn around, turn around!_

But it was too late. The man had already reached me.

"Hey. I thought I had noticed you. How is everything?" he asked kindly, turning so we were both walking in the same direction - towards the sidewalk where he had been originally. Out of the corner of my eye, I was observing him skeptically to keep watch for any incoming strange behavior.

"I'm well! I just got back from STAR Labs. I was discussing my onboarding with Dr. Wells. How are you?"

We had crossed the road, and were working our way past a string of small restaurants, past the regular scramble of people who were also traveling by foot.

"I'm fine. I had the morning off. Caitlin, Cisco and I were just having breakfast. Have you eaten yet?" He asked with a warm, rather sunny smile, "You know, if you're going to live here, you _have_ to try out this coffee place. It'll blow your taste buds away."

He actually seemed kind of sweet. He was probably just in a bad mood yesterday, or I had to have imagined the jolt of energy weakening my hand, right? He was pretty cute, come to think of it.

 _Snap out of it!_

"Oh - I - no, I haven't eaten yet, actually. Or, does half of a refrigerated bagel count?"

He gave a gentle laugh.

"No. You need something real to eat. Here, come with me. The coffee shop's right there." He gestured a long arm towards a restaurant a few feet away from us, and held the glass door, labelled _CC Jitters_ , open for me. I thanked him, and turned into the coffee shop. The walls were painted yellow, and the entire shop had a mellow vintage theme to it, creating a very calming atmosphere. I spied Caitlin and Cisco laughing, sitting together at a table for four. Both of them gave friendly smiles and waved to me when we made eye contact.

The man and I walked over to the counter and placed orders. The menu really did seem great, with various choices, each of which sounded great. I ordered a salad wrap and small coffee, and the man who came with me ordered chocolate chip cookies and a latte.

"That'll be $14.56," the barista read out in a New York accent. I scrammed to get my wallet out of my purse, when Bertie or Bernie or whoever he was had already swiped his credit card.

Amazing.

I didn't even know his name and he was paying for my breakfast.

"What? You didn't have to do that..." my protests went defeated as I watched him replace his card in a wallet that disappeared in a coat pocket.

"Not an issue. I brought you here - this is my treat," he answered calmly.

I followed him to another counter, where a different barista handed us our food, and we headed back towards the table where Caitlin and Cisco were seated.

"Wow. You really didn't need to do that," I attempted, feeling guilty for letting a stranger pay for my food.

"Hey, it's literally not a problem," he replied warmly, with a shy, encouraging smile, "Hope you'll enjoy your breakfast."

"Hey, I feel really bad for about this, but I don't actually remember your name?" I reluctantly admitted, as we seated ourselves at the table, "It's - you're Bernie, right?"

"Nope, it's Barry," he answered, disbelief tinging his smile, "That's actually the first time someone's mistaken me for Bernie, to be honest."

"Eek. Sorry, Barry," I murmured, before greeting my two future coworkers, "Hi guys."

"Bernie. That's dope." Cisco said with a nod. "Breakfast twice, Bernie?" he teased, as Barry helped himself to a cookie.

Barry shrugged in response.

"I ran into Artemis on my way to work, and she hadn't eaten so I thought she could join us," he said with cool confidence, "Besides, it's no fun being the only one eating and having everyone else watch you eat. It's creepy. I'm doing her a favor. Trust me."

"Uh-huh," Cisco snorted, smiling dubiously at his friend with an eyebrow raised, " _Totally_."

"Barry here's developing an addiction to the fresh-baked cookies. They're one of the recent additions to the menu." Caitlin explained as she snatched one of Barry's cookies and took a bite out of it. I laughed as Barry protested, despite having a cookie already in his mouth.

"Well, cookies and caffeine are a great way to start off the day," I offered, unwrapping my food.

"Says the one eating a salad wrap for breakfast," Cisco taunted playfully.

I gave him a wily smile and bit into my food. The tortilla wrap was warm and soft, and the vegetables were crispy and full of flavor. It tasted as if it was homemade, unlike the stale, flimsy wraps sold at other, more famous restaurants. Barry was right. This coffee shop _was_ great.

"Cisco, be nice. Those salad wraps are good stuff," Caitlin reprimanded gently. I continued eating in agreement.

Beside me, Barry gently wiped his mouth with a napkin and took a swig of his latte. I followed his example and took a sip of my coffee. It, too, tasted awesome. I immediately felt the caffeine kicking in and sharpening my senses.

"Have you two eaten yet?" I asked.

"Yeah, we were just discussing some work-related stuff before heading back to the lab," Cisco replied.

"Oh - I just got back from STAR Labs. Dr. Wells and I were working on my onboarding. I'm starting next week, actually."

"So soon? That's great!" Caitlin replied, "How did it go?"

"Oh my god - Dr. Wells is _too_ kind. He's leased me a home in a really nice apartment complex, and he's just going out of his way to arrange everything for my arrival. I'm just blown away by everything he's doing."

The trio smiled.

"Are you up at Cloverleaf?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Caitlin and I have apartments there as well. He set us over there too, when we got started. He's probably placing you near us so we can help you out if anything happens. But yeah, Cloverleaf is legit. We never moved out. You'll love it there."

"Yeah, I think Wells mentioned you two would be nearby."

I turned to Barry, who was listening to our conversation, having finished his cookies.

"Hey, I don't mean to pry, and I'm not the snoopy type, so you don't have to tell me, but does Dr. Wells yell at you guys a lot? He seemed pretty harsh yesterday, and it really wasn't that big of a deal."

"No, actually. He's never yelled at us before. He's actually an incredibly kind man" Cisco explained, "He's just been so worked up about having you, that it probably didn't seem too kind of us not to know who you are. He's been _obsessed_ about hiring you."

"Yeah... Sorry, again, for yesterday. I shouldn't have asked personal questions during your interview," Caitlin said, with earnest regret in her voice. She picked at her napkin.

"And I should have known better than to ask you if you were Dr. Van Kleiss' kid. Van _Kleiss!_ It's such an uncommon name, I really should have known." Cisco said, taking a deep breath, then turning to Caitlin, "I seriously can't believe we'll be working with Dr. Laurus Van Kleiss' daughter. That man is my _idol_. His work on artificial chemistry - it's something out of this _world!"_

"Well, again, it's no problem," I said with a smile, "If you've got any questions, feel free to ask."

The three of them fell silent, and I wanted to kick myself.

What kind of _idiot_ hosts a question-and-answer session for total strangers in the middle of their second meeting together?

Barry was the first to speak up after a moment of awkward silence.

"Were you really his daughter? I'm sorry - I didn't mean to ask it that way - I'm just so used to seeing that name in textbooks and on posters. It feels kind of surreal to have someone to close to him here with us."

Cisco and Caitlin relaxed.

"Did you want to see my birth certificate?" I joked.

Cisco held up a finger to silence us, and pulled out his phone, typing something in.

"The internet always has proof," he stated casually, before widening his eyes, "Caitlin, look! It _is_ her!"

Barry and Caitlin leaned in towards him to see, and he passed the phone around to them. I caught a glimpse of an image search of me and my parents, showcasing several family photos of myself with the iconic scientists, as well as other photos of me throughout my childhood. I felt slightly embarrassed.

"Oh snap - she's got a Gamer G Account," Cisco exclaimed, touching wildly at the screen of his phone, "Dayummmmm... You're a Level 246?! _Nice_."

"What, you've got one too?" I asked.

"Yes, I do. I'm sending you a friend request right as we speak."

I chuckled at his statement, and promised to send him one back.

"It's funny, really. You'll always hear about Laurus and Ariadne Van Kleiss, the two world famous physicists. You'll never hear that they...had a daughter." Barry commented.

"Yeah, well, they spent most of their lives studying a new element that they both discovered together. Their daughter wasn't quite as productive. I - they passed away before I could've joined them." .

Cisco looked away and pulled his hands into the pockets of his jacket. Caitlin's eyes fell to the table.

Dear god, I was an idiot.

Quick - say something to laugh it off.

"Besides, you usually only read about them in science textbooks or when you're studying their work. No scientist is _ever_ renowned for their work outside their fields. Einstein was an expert at the violin, and Tesla fed pigeons at the neighborhood park in his spare time. You don't hear much of _that_ , do you?" I added a laugh to sound casual, and my friends joined me with quiet smiles.

"So, enough about me. Tell me about yourselves. I literally just met all of you yesterday."

"Well, Caitlin here, as Dr. Wells said, is our geneticist. She runs tests and scans the DNA of our beloved metas, and then I work with her results to build really cool toys." Cisco declared.

"Yeah, but what she won't tell you is that she's _also_ a certified surgeon," Barry announced proudly, "Dr. Caitlin Snow, STAR Labs' very own M.D."

"Wow... Do you still practice? Surgeries and all that medical work?" I asked, "You work for the lab now - you must be more involved in genetic research than in medical practice, right?"

"Well, when it comes to metahumans," Caitlin murmured, "You never know what to expect. They can be ... dangerous."

"So you're, like, a doctor on standby in case anything goes wrong?"

Caitlin paused for a second before nodding her head.

"Are the regular hospitals here not suitable for taking patients who've been attacked by metas? Surely the people here _know_ about the metahumans, right? They're not, like, a secret hidden from society?"

"Well, sometimes a hospital isn't the best place to go to when..." Caitlin started, then quieted down, clearly unable to answer the question.

"Caitlin knows more about metahuman attacks than anyone else here. She's been studying them for months now. She's better prepared to handle those kinds of injuries than any other doctor," Barry answered, avoiding eye contact.

"And to answer your question, yes, the citizens here are aware that the particle accelerator's explosion had some severe side effects on the city itself. But the metahumans themselves are pretty rare here," Cisco said.

"Wait, so someone fill me in on metas. They're basically humans - but with unnatural abilities? I've actually never heard the term before until yesterday."

"Don't worry. I got you covered. I'll send you some of our notes, summaries and whatnot to give you a good idea of what its like encountering one. But yes, you're right. But that's where our science gets involved. We study them, take them down, we save the day, the city is safe." Cisco said, nonchalantly.

"You take them down? As in, action? Fighting?"

Wow, this job sounded pretty cool.

"Actually we let the police do that," Caitlin answered solemnly, "We're just the scientists behind the tech."

"Are all metahumans dangerous? Surely _some_ of them must be in their senses, have control over their abilities?" I asked, "I mean - dark matter radiation isn't proven to affect cognitive health, right?"

Cisco, Caitlin and Barry all looked at each other, before Cisco spoke up.

"We've... never actually seen or heard of anyone who could do that," he said quietly, exaggerating every word.

"Huh. That's interesting," I replied, turning to Barry, "So, Barry, you're not actually _involved_ at STAR Labs, right? You just send your findings to the Lab?"

"Yeah, basically. You won't believe how safe this city is. If someone is found mysteriously dead, we can only assume it was because of a metahuman. I'll just send the cases over to STAR Labs to see if they can help."

"You said metahuman attacks were rare? What do you all do in the meantime?"

"We, uhh, prepare? Work on other stuff Dr. Wells asks us to do?" Cisco responded. Before I could ask any other questions, I was interrupted by a waitress.

"Hi guys!" She chirped. I turned and saw an African American woman, with gorgeous almond-shaped eyes, a small, perky nose, and a beautiful, kind smile about her lips. Long, neat locks cascaded down her back. She was petite, and was wearing a black Jitters apron over a pretty green tunic and leather leggings. She was holding a tray of drink samples out to us.

The first thought that came to mind was: What's a supermodel doing, serving drinks?

"Hey, Iris," Cisco, Barry and Caitlin answered in unison.

"We're trying out new recipes for the menu," Iris intoned, "Care for some samples?"

"Oh, don't mind if we do!" Cisco reached over and helped himself to a cup holding what looked like a smoothie.

Barry and Caitlin did the same. I followed in their example. It tasted like a cross between bitter, frozen coffee and a fruit smoothie. I couldn't tell if I liked it or not. Judging by the strange looks on my friends' faces, I could tell their tastebuds were on the same boat.

"Oh god. Stick to the coffee," Barry uttered, putting his cup down, disgusted. Caitlin smiled nervously and silently nodded her head in agreement with Barry's words.

Cisco took another sip and shook the cup around, watching the contents swivel around inside.

"Tbh I think it's alright, just balance the flavors out better. It tastes like you put a cheesecake through a blender and tossed raw coffee beans in. I like the idea, but not the execution."

Iris smiled earnestly at him, then looked to me expectantly, surprising me. I had no idea I'd be expected to report on the drink as well.

"Uhh... I agree with Cisco. It could taste a little bit better. My mouth can't decide if I'm drinking a milkshake or a smoothie," I offered anxiously. Iris crinkled her eyebrows dejectedly, but the defeat melted away and she smiled back.

"Well, thanks, everyone! We really just cooked this up a few minutes ago." She paused for a second then looked at me, "I'm Iris West, by the way. Are you STAR Labs' newest recruit?"

"Yeah, I am, actually. The name's Artemis," I answered, surprised she had known about me. I reached my hand out to shake hers. She genuinely seemed like a kind, friendly person.

"Artemis. Very unique name. Us Greek goddesses gotta stick together, right?" she said with a wink.

Oh, right. Iris was the goddess of rainbows, I recalled.

"You bet! Thanks for the drinks, by the way. Did you make these?"

"Oh, no. I'm just working here as a part-time waitress. I'm really just doing this as a pasttime but I intern at the CCPN. Trying to land an actual job there," she explained with a roll of her eyes.

What was the CCPN, again?

"Oh? What are you trying to do there?"

"Journalism! I love writing! I'm just trying to get one of my articles into the newspaper. My editor is _not_ impressed with what I've got so far."

The newspaper! She must be talking about the Central City Picture News - I thought I had seen a vendor selling a stack of papers while walking through Downtown.

"Oh, wow. So, you're aiming to become a reporter, then?"

"Yeah! I'm currently interning with a Sports writer, but I'd really like to go freelance, hopefully into investigative journalism!"

"Wow. That's pretty amazing." I replied. I found myself genuinely wishing she'd land her job.

I could tell by the way she talked about it that this was something she was genuinely interested in, that she was truly enthusiastic about. She seemed like a _great_ person. Who wouldn't want for her to get what she deserved?

"Thanks! I'd love to catch up with you later - I've got to get the rest of these sad little guys out to everyone else here!," she said in her smooth, clear voice, gesturing her chin to the tray of smoothie/milkshake hybrids that she was holding, "It was great to meet you, Artemis! I hope we see each other again soon. Bye, guys!"

We all gave her our farewells, and I turned back to my companions.

"Wow, she seems wonderful!" I said, watching her deliver drinks to other customers, smiling that radiant smile at everyone she greeted.

"She is..." said a wistful voice behind me.

I turned to see Barry speaking, not moving his eyes away from her, resting his cheek in his hand. He had a sort of sad, yearning smile about his face. I looked at Barry, back at Iris, then back at Barry again.

Oh, I knew _exactly_ what was going on.

"So, uhh, Barry, are you into her?" I asked quietly, nodding my head towards Iris, hiding my dark smile. Cisco did a poor job of stifling back laughter.

"What? _No!"_ Barry protested, his cheeks flaring up with redness, "She's my sister!"

"Your _sister_?" I asked incredulously. I turned my head back to Iris.

She was of average height and thin build and had soft features, whereas he contrasted her, being tall and starkly gaunt in comparison. And, well, they were _obviously_ different races...

If she was his sister, then so was I.

I turned back to Barry and dramatically arched an eyebrow, demanding an explanation.

"I'm adopted." he admitted sheepishly.

I made a small show of shooting glances between Iris and Barry again, then lifted the remainder of my coffee to my lips before speaking.

"Well, I've seen plenty of siblings interact before, but I've never _quite_ seen someone look at their sister with _that_ kind of admiration," I asserted coolly, "But of course, that's none of _my_ business."

Caitlin chuckled out loud, hiding her smile behind her hand.

I caught him red-handed, or rather, red- _faced_.

Barry was blushing like mad, astonished at my inference. Cisco laughed openly now, slouching back in his chair.

"Oh, god, she's good. That was _smooth_. I'm gonna enjoy having her here." Cisco announced with a chuckle. Caitlin nodded her head.

Barry looked insulted, but amused.

"You - you just caught me off guard. I'll get back at you for that, you'll see," he responded. I giggled.

"I'm actually sorry. You'll find that I'm not the best person to be with in awkward situations. I can't help it. I just make things worse."

Barry turned to his friends.

"Is it _that_ obvious?" He demanded, annoyed. This clearly wasn't the first time someone caught his bluff about his little crush on his step-sister.

"Well, you don't always hide it as well as you should..." Caitlin conceded, smiling innocently.

Barry rolled his eyes and checked the time on his phone.

"Well... I gotta go. I'm going to be late. I'll see you two later." He rose to leave, then turned to me and patted my shoulder. "See you soon, Artemis. And welcome to Central City."

"Bye, Bernie," I quipped. He rolled his eyes at me and smiled, then left the restaurant.

"You two are going to get along _amazingly_ ," Cisco proclaimed. Caitlin laughed. I smiled at them.

"You're coming in next week? When will you be leaving to go back?" Caitlin asked.

"Tonight, actually. The flight back to Cambridge is at nine."

Cisco faced Caitlin, before looking to me again.

"Oh, we can drop you off at the airport," he suggested, "We'll be off by then."

"Thank you, but it's really not an issue. I'm a photon. I'm traveling light. A taxi will suffice, really."

Oh, not them _too_. Wasn't Wells doing enough for me?

"Oh, no. We insist. It's not everyday we get a new team member," Caitlin persisted, "We'll see you off."

"You're at the Central City Grand, right? We'll come get you," Cisco repeated.

"I - you guys don't have to! I don't want to be a burden."

"Shush, child. We'll come get you, and that's that," Cisco maintained, "We want you to feel welcome."

"You're going to make me feel welcome by walking me out of the city?" I questioned, giving him my signature eyebrow raise. Caitlin laughed. Cisco's protests were interrupted by their phones buzzing.

"An email from Wells..." Caitlin murmured, checking her phone. Cisco did the same.

"Oh - Wells asked me to fill you in on metahumans, send you some stuff. We already discussed that just now. I'll let him know I'm on it," Cisco mentioned, typing in a response.

"He wants me to take you to get some furniture." Caitlin mused, "Would you like to go today? I'm free after five."

"Uhh, yeah, I think today's the best option. Wells wants me settled in pretty much by the time I get here. If you could, that'd be really helpful."

Caitlin and I exchanged numbers, as did Cisco and I. We made plans to meet up later at 5:00, then Cisco and Caitlin excused themselves to go to work and left. Iris, too, was nowhere to be found, meaning I was alone.

I spent a majority of the rest of the day walking around the city, getting myself acquainted. I went back to the hotel for lunch, and spent the remainder of the afternoon in my room, packing up whatever I had left and watching TV. Around 5:00, I went back down to go wait for Caitlin, who said she'd pick me up in the lobby.

I waited for what seemed like centuries. I checked my phone. 5:27 p.m.

She must be busy? Or must have had more work to do than she expected?

I don't want to be the one to rush her, I thought. I've got plenty of time before the flight.

I waited some more.

I had sent her a text at some point while waiting. No response. The bellhops were beginning to eye me worryingly, and rushed other people back upstairs. One of them nervously confronted me.

"Ma'am? Are you waiting for someone? All persons are asked to be in their rooms."

"I'm not allowed to wait in the lobby?" I asked, confused and slightly ticked off.

"No - not at this moment. We're sorry. It's for your own safety. Please return to your room immediately."

I wasn't in the mood to argue, so I consented and went back to my room. I texted Caitlin telling her to let me know when she was outside. Still no response. I ate a bag of chips and continued my waiting. I checked the time on my phone again. 5:52 p. m. There was a limit to everything, I thought, unable to repress my irritation any longer.

I decided to call her. After three rings, she answered.

 _(Oh my gosh - Artemis, I am SO sorry. I had full intentions to come get you, but got caught up with - umm - work! Something came up - and I can't exactly leave! I literally feel so terrible - this wasn't what I had intended at all for you. I am SO sorry!)_

She clearly seemed very worried.

Panic was brimming her voice - was she crying? I couldn't exactly tell. In the background, I could hear a man - Cisco or Dr. Wells, perhaps? - yelling.

"Oh - It's no worry. I had just been waiting for you, but it's fine." I tried to keep the disappointment from revealing itself. Whatever it was - Caitlin genuinely sounded worried about it. And no mere lab test would make anyone worry that much.

Something was _definitely_ wrong.

 _(Listen, I'm so sorry about not taking you out for this, but we're still going to drop you off at the airport. PLEASE don't leave without us! We're going to come get you, okay?)_ She promised, her voice full of anxiety - or was it fear?

"Thanks, I really appreciate it. But if you're late, I can't afford to wait for you. I can't miss this flight. If you're not here by seven, I'll have to go on my own." I said, hoping I didn't sound harsh.

Cisco shouted something to her. She repeated his words into her mouthpiece.

 _(Artemis, no! You NEED to wait for us at the hotel. It's not a matter of dropping you off anymore. It's for your own safety. It's not safe to go out alone right now!)_

"Why? I've been exploring the city alone on my own _all_ day! Dr. Wells said this place was safe as could be! Barry did too! I really don't see why I need to wait for you. You told me you'd come get me now, and I ended up waiting for almost an hour." As angry as I was, I tried to keep my voice calm. "I can't afford to miss this flight, Cait. I can leave on my own. It's more than fine."

 _(NO! Not now! Just listen to me - you can't go out! Stay in your hotel room! Don't worry about your flight - we'll get you plane tickets if you miss the departure! Just don't leave! Artemis, are you listening?)_

"No." I said, then hung up the phone, then stomped back to the elevator. It's one thing if you can't fulfill your obligations to someone. It's a completely different matter if you ask someone for help when you're capable of doing your work on your own, I thought.

I consented on purchasing my own furniture online and pulled out my laptop. I spent what was left of my time collecting $1,347 worth of furniture on an online website, then forwarded the list to Dr. Wells. I had no money, anyways. And he did say he'd hook me up. Then I dropped my laptop back in its case, picked up my carry-on, and left the room to leave for the airport.

The hotel, for the most part, seemed pretty quiet and empty. In fact, the only person I saw on my way out was an elderly cleaning maid who tried to stop me from leaving. She grabbed me by the arm, and shook her head at me half in tears.

" _¡Non si può lasciare!_ " she wailed.

"What? No hablo..."

 _"¡Non è sicuro fuori! ¡E pericoloso!"_ she began to cry and shake her head more violently towards me and began pulling me back into the lobby. I shook myself free of her iron grasp.

"No? Vas a ser bien..." I assured her, hoping the elementary Spanish I had learned so long ago would suffice. She shook her head at me again and pointed back towards the elevators.

"I'm sorry. I gotta go." I insisted, then pushed my way out of the revolving doors.

The street outside was eerily calm and silent. I couldn't see anyone or any sign of life.

No cars driving on the streets, either.

How was I supposed to hail a taxi to the Central City Airport if I couldn't get a taxi?

How did everyone disappear so soon?

I grumbled a curse and turned towards the other part of downtown in search of hope, which turned out to be just as abandoned. There was literally nobody _anywhere._

I finally spotted some people inside a Big Belly Burger restaurant. I tried to enter and ask for help, but the door was locked. I rapped my hand on the glass window and called out to the people inside.

"Hey? Can someone open the door for me? I need help!"

Nobody stood up. Several parents gave me looks of pity, while their children looked at me with worry and confusion. A baby began crying in a stroller and his mother rose immediately to quiet him.

"Hey! Please open the door for me! I need a taxi! I have a flight soon and I don't know how to reach the airport!"

Again, nobody shifted. A child bowed her head and began weeping quietly. Nobody was getting up to help me.

I suddenly noticed that everyone was sitting as far away from the doors and windows as possible. Some children were sitting underneath the tables. What was going on?

I decided to ask the police for help. I pulled out my phone and dialed 9-1-1.

 _(911, what's your emergency?)_ the operator asked.

"Hi, I can't seem to find a taxi? I've got to get to the airport soon, and the entire city's like a ghost town..."

 _(Ma'am, you shouldn't be outside right now. It's not safe for anyone. PLEASE find shelter soon.)_

"Shelter? What - why?"

 _(You didn't hear? We notified everyone through the news, email, text, everyway we could.)_

"I don't live here. I'm not on any of your email lists or whatnot. What's going on?" I asked. Confusion and nervousness washed through me.

 _(Ma'am, the city is under lockdown. There's been a metahuman attack.)_

"WHAT?!" I suddenly recalled the warnings of the Italian woman in the lobby, and how I had failed to notice how quiet everything had been. Caitlin's warnings! No wonder she was telling me to stay inside. The nervousness turned into sudden fear. A metahuman attack? The _entire_ city was endangered by them? They were this intense?

 _(Ma'am, where are you located? l can send for a police officer to pick you up and bring you to safety. The city has been advised not to let anyone into their buildings.)_

"I'm in front of Big Belly Burger on Treehill Boulevard. I'm wearing a black blazer and pink floral dress, and am carrying a rolling suitcase and laptop bag."

 _(Thank you. We'll send for you right away.)_

"Thank you."

I was standing in the middle of the street - completely exposed and out in the open. While this made it easy for any police officer to find me, it also made me vulnerable should I be in any danger. I found myself praying that everyone inside the restaurant - and hiding elsewhere - stayed safe and out of harm's way.

But I had to get myself out of potential danger as well - and it was quickly getting dark. I looked to see if there were any cars or obstacles I could hide behind - when an explosion went off near the east end of Treehill Blvd.

Two police cars I had not noticed before had swerved from the neighboring road onto the intersection between that road and Treehill - and had seemed to have crashed into each other. Smoke billowed beneath their hoods, and two officers scrounged out of the first car, a third pulling out an unconscious companion from the passenger side of the second.

"Central City Police! Put your hands where we can see them!" one announced, the first two officers pointing pistols towards me.

Panicking, I dropped my bags and obeyed.

Then I realized they weren't talking to me.

A ghostly figure appeared out of thin air a few feet in front of the cars. He wore a gray nylon jacket that was unzipped in the front, and dusty blue jeans, as if he had just rolled around in ash. I saw that he was only a young boy - couldn't have been older than 17 or 18 - and of a tall, strong build. Despite his age, he seemed to have grayish-silver hair concealed under a hood, and wore an expressionless face.

He faced the officers and stood up tall, held his hands up, exposed.

Even at a distance - a few hundred yards away from me - his skin too seemed grayish and extremely dry, reminding me of old sandpaper. As if it could disintegrate with a single touch.

The officers, now joined by their third companion, looked at each nervously, then stepped forward with handcuffs to arrest him.

As soon as one officer had the boy's gray hands behind his back, the boy... vanished with an ominous puff of gray smoke.

Oh god. My eyes were betraying me. I - I had blinked and missed him.

No, I didn't, I realized with a churn of my stomach.

What I had seen was the truth.

The boy had turned into _smoke,_ and disappeared completely _..._

Was my lunch from earlier _drugged?_ This couldn't have actually happened. Nobody can just ... turn into _smoke_ and dissipate into the air?!

The officers began to panic. They frantically looked around for the gray boy. Soon, the twilight air began thickening into murky smog. The smoke bloomed wildly, and soon even the officers were barely visible to me.

"We need backup on Treehill! Send as many officers as you can! We're - we're surrounded by smoke!" A voice yelled into a walkie-talkie.

"What's that over there?" another officer said. Through the smoke, I could barely make out an arm gesturing towards me.

"I'm an innocent bystander. I was not able to find shelter. I mean you no harm," I answered hurriedly. By the time I finished explaining myself, the air had been completely converted to smoke. I realized I was not able to breathe through the ashes flowing through the air, and coughed powerfully. There was no clean oxygen left here, I realized, fear shooting shivers up and down my spine.

I heard coughing coming from the general direction of the police as well.

"Try to make your way over to us as quickly and quietly as possible! The boy you saw is extremely unpredictable and dangerous!" Someone shouted, then coughed.

I held my hands out in front of me, trying to feel for any obstacles in my path despite the fact that I knew it was a clear street. I was stumbling around blindly, and my chest began to tighten from the lack of air. Suddenly I felt something strong wrap itself around my waist and my neck. I was lifted off of the ground. I let out a shriek with whatever breath I had left.

"Please - I don't want to hurt you - I'm just as scared as you are." whispered a juvenile male voice. It was the boy - the metahuman.

I choked in response.

"I don't know how to control these powers. The police think I'm here to hurt everyone."

"I - can - see - why."

I was losing oxygen quickly. My head began to get woozy from both his tight chokehold around my neck and from the intense smoke around me. Within a few minutes, I knew I was going to pass out, and possibly die.

The boy willed the air to clear in front of us. A light smoky sheen revealed a trio of very confused officers, each pointing guns in different directions. They noticed us, and immediately reorganized themselves so they were pointing the guns at us.

"Thompson - let the woman go!"

"Promise to stop chasing me, or she dies."

To emphasize his point, he intensified the smoke around my head, but left an almost clear passageway by my nose amidst the mini smoke cloud. I could breathe clearly, I realized and began inhaling great gulps of the precious air. He was making it look like I was in danger to get his way with the officers.

He really did mean it when he said he didn't want to harm me, but that didn't dispel my fear. The boy had been choking me just moments before. I could tell that he needed help, and the police were scaring him.

Soon, at least four more police cars joined the scene, and we were soon looking at a small crowd of at least sixteen cops, each one with guns pointed straight at us. A middle aged African American police officer with a beard stepped forward.

"This is Detective Joseph West! I order you to put the girl down! She has _nothing_ to do with this!"

"You all claim to be helping and keeping the city safe! Why can't you understand that I don't want to hurt anyone?" The boy shouted desperately, "Why can't you understand that I never intended to hurt anyone at the furnace factory - that it was an _accident?_ Why can't you leave me alone? I'm not a threat!"

"Andrew Thompson - if you're not hurting anyone, put the lady down!" West ordered.

"I'm only using her because you've pushed me to this extreme. Swear you'll let me be or - or I'll terrorize the entire city!" the boy threatened.

"Kid, you're not the best negotiator..." I whispered seriously.

He looked at me with eyes full of fear.

"STAR Labs can help you. They're experts at helping metahumans," I murmured, hoping to talk logic into the boy, "I can take you to them."

"Please. STAR Labs is the _last_ place I'll go. Don't you know? They capture and _torture_ metas. No meta who has _ever_ been stopped by them has been seen again, and nobody knows what happens to them. If I go to them, my family will never see me again," he muttered sourly, slowly backing away from the cops, still holding me tightly.

"So what's it gonna be? Will you let me live in peace, or is she going to die by my hand?" he yelled into the open.

A blonde officer joined Joseph West at the front line, and was about to yell something at us when he was interrupted by the loudest sound I had ever heard in my life.

It sounded like something along the lines of a jet-fighter plane rushing past us, except... on the ground?

The zoom was followed by a huge gust of wind hitting against us, ripping against my body. I turned to see what it was, and saw nothing. Whatever had caused the rush of wind had either disappeared or was invisible.

Great. Another murderous metahuman.

"You called him? You called _him_?!" Andrew panicked, releasing me and pushing me far away from him, "Please - you have to understand! I was bluffing! I don't want to harm anyone! I can barely control these abilities!"

His cries were earnest, but his fear was causing the smoke that had been dying down around us to billow into huge clouds again.

"Andrew - calm down! Your creating more smoke!" I shouted at him, hoping he'd hear me through the deep fog.

He looked at me, then at the cops behind us, still standing erect with their guns. Panic fleeted through his eyes.

"No - I can't put up with this anymore. You all are always chasing me, always treating me like a villain. Fine. If you're going to fight me, I'm going to fight ba -" the loud boom sound had crashed into him before he could finish his words, blowing most of the smoke away, followed by a streak of harsh yellow lightning.

In Andrew's place stood a pure red humanoid who was shaking terribly. No, not shaking. It was trembling, but powerfully, in control, and on purpose. I finally understood that the figure had been the one who had somehow run into Andrew Thompson.

Just as the smoke had almost died down and cleared the block, Andrew rose off of the ground about twenty feet away, clutching his forehead, his elbow bleeding.

"Not you. Please - not you. I've heard about you. You always speed in to save the day. I'm not a bad guy. I'm not a **_bad_** guy. Please!" he pleaded.

The red demon stood still.

Then a gunshot went off somewhere. I looked to the police and saw one of the officers with a guilty, sweaty look on his face, dropping his gun. He had fired, and the bullet had gone straight into Andrew's chest.

Andrew bowed his head and looked at the blood swelling through his ashy shirt. He looked back at the cops and the red figure with an enraged look on his face, curling his lips into a horrifying grimace. He held his hands up towards the police and the red human, and let out the most disturbing roar I had ever heard, and smoke erupting in great, toxic clouds from his fingertips right at us.

My heart stopped as I realized I was standing right in the midst of the showdown - right in front of the cops.

A series of gunshots went off on one side of me, smoke billowing on the other side.

I turned and tried to run, but before I could even lift my leg, I heard another powerful _zoom_ and instantly found myself at the sidewalk, away from the horizontal column of dark air that had consumed the road.

More _zooms_ , and the other police officers were dropped off to the sidewalk as well.

I could barely keep track of the red being as it went back towards Andrew and attacked him with several punches, each too fast to be seen, gold electricity stringing behind his movements. Andrew seemed to be trying to phase into smoke, but returned to his solid human form with each blow from his ghostly crimson opponent. He was trying to escape, I realized, but couldn't due to his adversary's rapid attacks.

I saw nothing but a gold blur encircling the boy, battering the boy in the middle of the electric tornado. Soon, the smoke had died down completely, and the air had cleared just as fast as it had darkened.

The boy was lying unconscious in the middle of Treehill Blvd, bruises about his head, a small stream of blood trickling from his agape mouth. The red demon was standing over him, then looked at me with a vibrating face I could not discern. I yelped as it ran towards me and picked me up, running so fast that space and time seemed to blur together, the wind piercing my face, tearing my hair out of its bun. I tried to close my eyes and pretend I was not moving at undefinable speeds, praying the metahuman wouldn't hurt me or kidnap me, losing control of my poor stomach.

Before I could even shut my eyes, I was at a building I recognized as the Central City Airport, unable to find my balance as I fell to my knees at the drop-off. My stomach churned again, only this time with violence. I felt myself gag - indicating that I was going to throw up. In another undefinable second, I had been lifted off the ground and pulled to my feet, and my laptop bag was over my shoulder, the handle of my carry-on bag in my left hand.

As my heart beat thundered against my ear, I could barely register what was happening as another blast of wind raced past my face, back towards the city, disappearing so fast I had to remind myself that everything I saw was real.

A young boy had been affected by the particle accelerator and had gained extraordinary, but dangerous, abilities.

He had been unfairly beaten by a red alien being and was targeted by the police because he did not know how to control his powers.

He said STAR Labs captures metahumans.


	3. Flashbacks

Back in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I had little time to pack up my belongings before returning to Central City.

I couldn't exactly sleep very well either. I had been having nightmares about the vibrating red creature - nightmares that involved him brutally beating up my body on an empty street. Who _was_ he? A small fear tugged at me that I _had_ seen him before, once when I was younger...

I fervently prayed it wasn't him.

 _"You always speed in to save the day."_

That's what Thompson had said to him before the crimson being mercilessly overpowered him.

Speed in to save the day?

Saving the day involved _helping_ people, not beating them.

But... But Thompson had been on the verge of poisoning the entire city block with his toxic smoke...

The being had no choice - Thompson couldn't control his abilities, and if he wasn't stopped, he would soon have killed off everyone.

But what could Thompson have _done_? His powers seemed to be directly controlled by his emotions, and the police force had performed an _excellent_ job of targeting him and making him as if he was a threat.

The only way he could've been stopped was by being taken down, and the police weren't powerful enough to do that.

Only the red speedster was...

I had said my goodbye to my parents at the Cambridge Cemetery, then headed over to the train station, finally accepting the fact that I was going to leave with more fear than anticipation.

I boarded the train and found my seat, before allowing my mind to wander off again.

Such abilities... I pondered in amazement, settling down for my long train ride.

Thompson had woven himself into the air. He could turn into smoke when provoked or frightened. More so, he had quickly managed to cover an entire city block with the black fumes in less than a minute.

Granted, he was not able to harness his abilities, but the fact that he had superhuman capabilities still pierced my heart with fear as well as a reluctant fascination.

Forget Thompson - the zooming red alien-like being had _really_ stolen the show that night.

That _speed_ \- the creature moved quicker than lightning. Was it even a metahuman?

It seemed too surreal to me that a human could be powerful enough to accomplish a feat like that. It had seemed unearthly, unrealistic. But I had seen it with my own eyes... The being ran into the scene, had saved us all from the horrifying smoke in less than a second, and had defeated Andrew Thompson in mere _moments_.

I couldn't believe I was moving to a city where _this_ happened, where I would be working at a laboratory highly involved in occurrences such as this.

The lab, I remembered with disdain.

Thompson spoke about STAR Labs with disgust and hatred. But that couldn't be true, correct?

STAR Labs was internationally renown - my own professors had regarded Dr. Harrison Wells and his work about energy-charged particles with admiration, respect and and reverence. They had known Wells many years before we had even been born - the man was in every physics textbook, had biographies published about him, had his own books published in every language and made famous in every corner of the world. He was revolutionizing clean energy and medicine through his work on particle control, and had planned on making clean energy free so we wouldn't be destroying our valuable ecosystems anymore and so healthcare could be more readily available and at cheaper costs. He had documentaries made about him, he was one of the greatest up and coming scientists of our day - the modern day Einstein. He was just as influential as Newton, Tesla, Marie Curie, Galileo, Stephen Hawking, my parents -

My parents.

They would have been _ecstatic_ to find out about this. Or - maybe they would have had higher expectations - that I would perform my _own_ scientific work rather than latching onto another lab.

See, my parents - Laurus and Ariadne Van Kleiss - were scientists as well. And no ordinary ones, while we're at it.

My mother was born and raised in Athens and was accepted to Harvard as an international student, where she met my father, of Dutch descent. They were both enthusiastic physicists who met during college before getting married. They were the ones responsible for discovering a new element - named vankleissium, in their honor. The new element, they found, was rather uncontrollable and ineffectual when it came to doing anything, hence its alternative moniker, _ecfrenatus_ , Latin for uncontrollable. The two of them began receiving anonymous death threats for their work, however - threats that promised to kill them should they continue their work. They chose to ignore the threats, believing they were hoaxes from envious rival scientists wanting the praise for their work.

At some point, I was born, and my parents had to balance a family life raising a new fascination - their daughter - as well as studying one in a lab - the element. They had found that while the element was not particularly reactive, it could easily be transformed and changed to resemble other elements, both in appearance and texture - opening new doors to molecular applications as well as questioning whether or not the element could _actually_ substitute its chosen dopplegangers.

These discoveries were followed by more threats, this time promising to kill _me_ if my parents did not stop their work.

As loving parents, this obviously struck a chord within them, and they hired guards to watch over their work and their lab, and over myself and their home - maximum security on everything, and had reported the threats to the police as well, before continuing their work.

We lived and worked in peace for a few years before my parents discovered that, yes, the particle _could_ be used to substitute any other material given proper laboratory modification - opening doors to thousands of technological and medical applications, allowing my parents to completely reinvent the field of artificial chemistry, and of course, this didn't go without application.

My parents soon received a phone call from Stockholm, Sweden, proudly inviting them over to Europe to receive a Nobel Peace Prize for all of their work.

This was also the moment when the death threats, which had left us alone for a few years, finally returned and reached their peak - receiving hundreds of ominous phone calls and notes in our mailbox, on our windows, on our cars, everywhere.

My father was physically beaten by a mysterious man on a trip back from the grocery store, and my mother barely escaped a terrifying car crash that left seven others dead.

Younger me would wake up screaming in the middle of the night and would run to my parents' room, recounting that a scary man was watching me sleep from my window, but our nightly guards would promise that they hadn't seen anyone there and that every inch of the perimeter was secured, though I _swore_ there was a scary figure, peering down at me.

The police were unable to find a match behind the fingerprints on the threatening notes left behind, or track down the voice behind the phone calls promising death, nor were they able to trace who this horrifying figure was.

My parents hesitated about leaving for Europe, and after several stressful weeks filled with arguments and confusion, managed to agree that my father, Laurus, would leave alone, while my mother would stay behind in Cambridge with her eight year old daughter.

What should have been the happiest moment of our lives became the most stressful. I remember seeing my mother shivering with fear as she hugged my father goodbye at the airport, and my father trying his best to stay upbeat as he lifted my mother's chin, assuring her that everything would be okay, that he'd be back as soon as possible, that he'd call us every hour, and that everything would go back to normal soon. I remember seeing my mother finally break down into tears after we arrived home, when she saw that a horrifying note was posted on our door, written in a blood-like ink for added effect, no less -

 **Now, you've done it.**

 **You've continued despite my warnings - you didn't believe me.**

 **Your family will be ripped apart, and everything you've worked for will be destroyed.**

The guards, who had been stationed at our house and laboratories round the clock, said they didn't see anyone or anything come anywhere near our house, and solemnly swore that they had nothing to do with it. The security camera footage didn't show anything either - it was completely clean. The only visible people were the armed guards watching the house, and my mother and I returning. My mother called for more security, this time for members of the SWAT team and the FBI. She phoned my father and the hotel where he would be staying at, and ordered for maximum protection there as well. With shaking hands, she drove me back into town to lock up our lab before returning home and taking me with her to her bedroom to sleep. My mother, who rarely showed fear, was openly afraid, and Papa, always brilliant and caring, was in Sweden all alone, about to receive a prestigious award tomorrow morning, and an unknown man had threatened murder upon our family.

Suffice to say nobody got any sleep.

The next morning, we woke up early to check up on our house and with the guards, then settled down in the living room, ready to watch my father walk the stage and receive the Nobel. I remember myself cheering with glee and my mother silently crying tears of joy as my father and my hero, held up his award on live television and said his speech, dedicating his life's work to his daughter, Artemis, and that he owed everything to his best friend, partner and beloved wife, Ariadne, both of whom were not able to join him.

My mother and I called Papa after the ceremony, both to congratulate him and to ask if things were safe. He assured us that the situation was as safe as could be, and that we were heroes now - nothing could stop us.

His last words to us were said through the phone call that night, assuring us that we were great people, and were unparalleled in the entire universe. Nothing, he said, could take us away from him, and that he would be home soon. Papa then told my worrisome mother to calm down and get some sleep, and that he would be back on the plane to America the next day.

We believed him.

In the morning, we called my father, expecting more promises that he'd be at the airport, finished with his packing, ready to come home to us soon. He didn't answer. My mother dialed him again to no avail. She tried calling him again, and then a fourth time, before calling the registrar at his hotel.

A Swedish police officer answered my mother and with a heavy voice, explained to her that Laurus Van Kleiss, Nobel Prize winner and legendary physicist, the genius behind vankleissium, had been found in his hotel room with a huge, gaping, bloodied hole through his sternum and back, his papers scattered all across the floor, the room's windows, mirrors, and glasses shattered and in pieces.

Police and detectives were unable to piece together how the murder had happened: the guards positioned outside of my father's room and on the hotel balcony were found deceased in identical manners, and security footage again showed nothing: the men appeared to simply fall dead at the same moment the glass windows exploded, and the hole in my father's chest appeared out of thin air.

My mother was left in pieces, unconsolable, and I was severely scarred by the instance. My heroic genius of a father had been killed after he received the greatest award in the world, and nobody could figure out how. The news was broadcasted internationally, and detectives from all across the world had been personally requested by my mother to find out who was responsible for his death.

Nobody was able to find anything, and the case was almost immediately declared cold.

His body was returned to us, and my mother immediately sent for it to be investigated again. Hopefully, the Americans could find something. Again, forensic scientists and detectives were unable to figure out what had happened.

After weeks of analysis, the best they could come up with what that whoever did this was too fast to be detected.

###

We held my father's funeral quietly at the Cambridge Cemetery. Both of my parents were only children, without siblings, and had lost their own parents to old age. I remember the shock and pain I had felt when I had realized the only family I had left was my mother, as old classmates, professors and friends comforted us.

My mother had the family laboratories shut down, and pulled me out of school, keeping me with her for each living second. She had lost my father when they were separated. She had vowed to protect me with everything she had, or so help her. Security was almost quadrupled. My mother kept a gun with her at all times, and each square foot of the house was bugged, making our once cozy two-story house seem more like a military complex.

For a few nights, it seemed as if we could actually live safely.

One morning, my mother had asked for me to get ready to leave with her. She had arranged for a press conference, and would be announcing some very important news to the science world. We drove to one of Harvard's lecture halls, filled with reporters, journalists, faculty members, and some close students. She sat me down in the front row, and walked over to the podium, ready to face her audience. She had always kept her beautiful blonde hair cut short in a pixie cut, and decided to wear her glasses and red leather jacket that day.

With pain in her honey-like voice, she publicized that she no longer had the heart to continue her and her husband's work on the properties of vankleissium after his sudden death, and was resigning from her position as a physicist. Our labs would be permanently closed, and while they had shared much of their work on venkleissium with the world, she would not disclose the rest of data, leaving it a secret forever. Her sole priority, now, would be raising her daughter and keeping her safe. Nobody had solved Laurus Van Kleiss' murder, and until his killer was discovered and thrown in prison, my mother swore that she would have _nothing_ to do with the work that got her husband killed.

The hall erupted into an uproar, and several journalists tried to stop my mother from leaving, pleading with her to answer her questions on her way out. She silently walked over and retrieved me, then left Harvard silently, scowling as we drove back home.

The second we got home, she ran upstairs, instructed a handful of guards to watch over me, and shut herself up in her room.

From the other side of the door, I could hear loud, unrestrained sobbing.

This was the _only_ moment my mother had willingly left my side since my father had been killed.

###

That night, my mother finished her nightly routine of double checking all the locks and bolts on our windows and doors, checked in with our guards, then took me to her room to go to sleep.

But I couldn't sleep - I was more confused than ever. All I could understand was that Papa had been killed mysteriously and viciously, and that Mama was going to quit her work, and everyone was mad at her, and her response was to shut them out. My mother was no longer the strong, witty, youthful and confident scientist who had taken the world by storm. She was weak and sad now, and afraid. So so very afraid.

I began to weep as she pulled me in closer. She rose her head in response.

"Temi, what's wrong? I thought you were asleep," she murmured as she comforted me, stroking my hair.

"Mama, everything is so bad now. Papa's not here, and you are always scared."

Tears burned helplessly from my eyes down my cheeks. She wiped them away with a kind hand before snuggling my head in the curve of her neck like she did when I was a small child.

"I want Papa back, Mama." I wept. I began trembling with sobs now, and my mother rose and hugged me to her chest. She softly began crying as well.

"Hush, child. You're a big girl now. A big girl with a big heart and a strong mind," she kissed my forehead. "You are young, but you have so much strength in you as well, strength you do not know of yet. Soon, you will accomplish great things. Your father is not here, but I am, and I vow to love you and protect you. You will go on to become a great woman, you'll see. Find that strength, and you can do amazing things, Temi. Your father would be proud of you. You need to make sure you keep your head in the game, and make me proud too, okay?"

Her voice cracked gently from her tears. She squeezed my shoulder and kissed my face.

I didn't understand much of what she was saying, but her smooth voice consoled me.

Then, Mama got up, turned on the lights and walked to her and Papa's chest of drawers, where they kept files and papers that didn't concern me. She opened up the first drawer, one that could only be opened by key, and rummaged through it until she found what she was searching for, and walked back over to me on the bed.

"Temi, look what I have here," she said kindly as she emptied her hands onto the mattress between us. I saw several rings, a silver chain, a key ring, and a few pairs of brass keys. She picked up two of the rings - golden bands with Harvard's logo on their faces, one slightly smaller than the other, and placed them in my small hands.

"These are our college rings. Papa and I received them when we were finished with our school."

I closed them in my hand, and watched Mama pick out another ring - a small band with a huge, perfectly cut diamond in the center.

"And this, Tema, is the engagement ring your father gave me when he proposed," she said, smiling as I turned the new ring around in my hands.

"Did we ever tell you how he proposed to me?"

I shook my head no.

"Well, we were good friends when we first started college. But I never really liked him more than that," She said with a laugh, "But near the end of our undergraduate studies, he started going off about how he loved me and was going to marry me. I dismissed him as crazy, and told him he'd have to win me over before any of that. I wasn't going to spend my entire life with someone just because they were my lab partner." She explained, her beautiful smile not leaving her lips. She all too rarely revealed that smile nowadays. I smiled back at her. Anything to keep that smile lasting longer, anything to keep her happy and not afraid. I giggled.

"But you did, Mama. You did marry him," I said. She laughed in response, and tickled my stomach, eliciting more giggles from me.

"He started putting up more of an effort when we started graduate school. Took me to places much nicer than the old library or Big Belly Burger. He spent more time with me, tried to be funnier, cooler, smoother. It didn't work, but I saw that he truly cared and actually meant it when he loved me. So, on the day we received our Masters, right after the grad ceremony, he got down on one knee and proposed to me with that very ring - right in front of both of our families! I remember feeling so embarrassed being confronted like that in front of my parents - as it was kind of improper - but I said yes. Your father was a very kind, caring and hardworking man. I couldn't imagine being with anyone else," She looked away, and I allowed her to have her moment to relive the memory. She turned back to me, and kissed my cheek.

"You are just like him, you silly girl." She said, tickling me under my chin. Again, I giggled helplessly. I was hopelessly ticklish, and Mama knew that.

"You have his laugh, you know, and the same gorgeous black hair as him," she murmured, looking into my eyes, "And the same kind of fearless determination that he had. When you grow up, you'll be a very strong woman, my little Artemis." She stopped and stroked my hair for a second, then picked up the last ring - a wedding band. It was a much more elaborate version of the last ring, with a rose gold band, and rubies flanking the centerpiece diamond on either side, fashioning the gems into an expertly crafted crescent.

"This one, as you know, is the ring I was given at our wedding. Your father knew how madly I was obsessed with the moon, and said that if I wasn't going to marry him because I loved him, then at least I should stay with him because he was moon-eyed for me and couldn't do anything about it," she recalled with a laugh.

"That's where you got your name, my beautiful. The moon is a very beautiful, but sad, celestial body. But she has a power of her own... Even if everyone is asleep when she rises, even if you cannot see her on some nights, you know she is there. She is there, and she is always watching, always protecting her Sun. She shines her special light on the people below her, a light you cannot find anywhere else, not even in the stars. There is only one moon, and she is unique. Because - without the darkness, she can never shine," She explained.

I admired the ring for a second in my hand, then something clicked in my brain.

"But Mama, sometimes I see the moon in the mornings. And the sun is there too!" I declared, "And what about - about eckipses?" I started, unable to remember the word Papa had taught me once.

"The moon and the sun _are_ together sometimes," I continued stubbornly.

Mama leaned her head to one side, and kissed me gently on the cheek.

"And Mama - Daddy said I was named for a goddess. Artemis. The goddess of hunting women-"

Mama interrupted me before I could explain to her that other planets had moons too.

"The goddess of the hunt and of maidenhood, child. Artemis protected the animals, and looked after the women to make sure they were safe before they were married. And she rode the chariot that was the moon. She was a very strong and determined legend, just as we hoped you would be," In later years, I learned that Mama was giving me a watered down, child's version of the tale, "In either case, we named you this because you are our only child - our only moon. And you bring light to our lives - to my life," She corrected herself, remembering she would not be sharing me with anyone anymore, "And you, my love, have more in you than you know. You are my little girl, and you are so amazing," she said, as she fought me with more tickles. I hugged her arm and adjusted so I was sitting beside her, and she picked up the smaller of the two brass keys.

"Now, this is the key to our house. I always thought I would give this to you when you were older, but you can never be too careful, _nai_? If it makes you feel safer knowing you can have this, I want you to have it."

I nodded my head, and Mama added the key to my collection of trinkets. She picked up the last charm - the larger brass key. It had _Van Kleiss Labs_ engraved in a fine print upon its bow and _Artificial Chemistry and Physics Research_ cut into either sides of the blade. She gave it a long, sad look, then sighed as she held it out to me.

"This one, Temi, is the key to our laboratory. When we find out what happened to Papa, when his killer is brought to justice, we will go back and continue our work. We will go back and reopen the lab, and _you_ will be the one who will unlock the door. You and I will work together. You will bring our work back to its original legacy, and you will carry on our name with pride and reverence."

I smiled and nodded my head at her.

"Now, you should also know that this is the only key left. Only two were made - one for Papa, one for me. Your father has the other key. I only saw fit that he keep it with him for the rest of eternity. But this - this is mine, and I entrust it to you. You will reopen the lab, and you will make us proud. So, so proud." She kissed me again, then held her hand out to me. I gave her everything back, and she fastened the keys and rings onto the keyring, and strung that about the silver chain. She held up the result - a beautiful necklace with a very valuable charm pendant. I took it from her and put it on, admiring the collection in my hand.

"Silly girl, you're going to wear it to sleep?" She asked kindly. I pumped my chin up and down in response.

"I won't stop you, but what if it hurts you in your sleep?" she asked with motherly concern.

"It won't, Mama. _You_ gave it to me. I'll sleep fine," I responded. She smiled and pulled me in her arms, and leaned back down upon the pillows, singing a Greek lullaby to me. I was far too old for lullabies, but they were most effective at putting me to sleep. Songs about happiness, about warmth and comfort, promising a life without issues, given that I get good rest. As if sleep was the answer to all of life's problems.

My eyes lulled to sleep as Mama continued to sing, her warm smile the last thing I saw.

###

We slept peacefully for a few hours, but I jolted awake suddenly. The ground was shuddering steadily. It wasn't supposed to do that.

I shook my mother awake.

"Mama - earthquake!"

"What? Earthquake?" She sat up straight and looked around, "But Tema, the ground isn't shaking, only the -"

Her eyes grew wide as she stopped mid-sentence. She quickly grabbed me and held me tightly in her arms. I could hear Mama's heart pounding like a drum inside her chest. I had no idea what was going on. The shuddering got louder and louder. Outside, the guards on the balcony looked at each other with confusion.

"Something bad is going to happen," she whispered, looking at me with wide, scared eyes.

For a moment, everything stood perfectly still. Mama held her breath in fear. The only sounds were her beating heart and the trembling noise, both of which grew more and more intense by the second. I couldn't tell what was happening. I wondered if Mama was afraid for no reason.

Then the shuddering became deafening as it hit its peak, and lightning struck the glass door. No, it wasn't lightning, but somehow the windows and the glass door leading out to the balcony exploded with a burst of blinding light, and my mother squeezed me against her even tighter as shards of glass flew everywhere.

My six year old brain was able to understand very little of what occurred next.

The light that had destroyed the glass door started circling the room at unfathomably fast speeds, throwing perfume bottles off of Mama's dressing table, ripping picture frames off of the walls, sending the entire room into a loud, chaotic vortex.

Mama held a tight grip on me, but from between her arms, I could see that the light had taken on the form of a red and yellow man. No, not one man, I realized. Two. One red, one yellow, chasing each other around the room, each followed by yellow and red lightning, respectively - both nearly impossible to discern as they zoomed around at impossibly fast speeds.

Mama screamed, and broke one arm free to retrieve her revolver hidden underneath her pillow. She struggled to load it with spare bullets as the lightning demons continued to rip around the room.

With a shock, I had realized that pieces of glass had pierced her arms and even her temple, but that didn't stop her.

One of the men made a sudden move at us, but was stopped by the other as they continued in their tornado of a fight.

Mama took her gun and began to try to shoot at them, but to no avail - the beings were simply going too fast. She kept shooting anyway, lodging bullets into the walls, the TV, anywhere. Soon, she ran out of bullets, threw the gun, and once again held me in her iron hug, but before I could hug her back and release the scream I had been containing during the entire instance, I was outside, on the lawn, at the edge of the street, in the exposed cold.

The beings had been in there for only seconds, and I was somehow outside.

The guards at our front door and porch were taken aback by finding six year old Artemis in her Unicorn Fairy pajamas fallen on the lawn. I had no idea how I got there, but I ran towards them, and screeched for my mother. On the balcony, I could see the two guards positioned there lying flat, blood painting the ledge.

They had been killed.

The other sentries joined the ones from the front door, and pounded their heavy feet up the stairs, while two stayed behind to try and contain me. I screamed and sobbed. Mama was up there all alone, and she had no means to protect herself from whatever the hell was happening up there. With panic, I remembered the headlines from Papa's murder - **_Nobel Prize Winner Laurus Van Kleiss found Dead in Hotel Room Amid Broken Glass, Murder Scene is Insensible._** Whatever was going on inside was going to kill Mama, just like it had to Papa, I realized. My fear took a new form as pure adrenaline, and I pushed my way out of the arms of my protectors, and ran inside the house and up the stairs, the guards chasing me, yelling at me to stop. The other eighteen or so guards were all around my mother's room, trying to push the door open. Three slammed into the door at once, and it fell from its hinges. I pushed through them and ran inside.

Mama was still alive, but the creatures who were there before had stopped. One had disappeared, actually. Mama was sitting up straight, awash in fear, and made eye contact with me. The guards now stood in the same line as me, just as shocked as I was.

"Artemis, you need to leave! Get out!" She shouted, then turned to her left, her once beautiful brown eyes raging with fear.

There was a ghostly man standing there. A tall one, in a yellow suit that phased into black as it went down to his feet. He wore a yellow cowl that hid all of his face save for his mouth, curled in a horrible smile as he faced me, and eyes as red as burning coals - a face that would haunt me in my nightmares well into adulthood. There was a lightning-shaped emblem on his chest. Just as soon as we had noticed each other, he shoved a knife in my mother's chest and sneered as she slumped back against the headrest. I let out a horrified scream, tears burning my eyes as I ran to her bedside, and the guards open fired on him. The other lightning man - the red one - appeared from the other side of the room, jumped over our heads, slammed into the yellow one, and both disappeared in a fit of static.

It was all over just as soon as it had happened - again, in mere seconds. Milliseconds, perhaps.

A handful of guards ran over to where the two beings had disappeared, and I climbed the bed and sat on my mother's lap.

I pray that no child see what I faced that night.

The large knife stuck perpendicularly out of my mother's chest, blood blossoming thickly around the wound, through her purple nightdress. Her eyes and mouth were closed, and her head fell to one side, blood streaming down her temple, where a glass shard as big as my thumb had embedded itself. Her arms - the same arms that were holding me so tightly and with so much strength and love only moments ago, were sprinkled with bits of glass from the initiating explosion and fell limp at her sides.

Mama was stabbed.

Mama was critically hurt.

Papa was dead and now Mama was dying - and I had seen how it had happened.

The police are wrong. No human killed papa. The suspect wasn't human, I thought with shock as a guard lifted me off of my mother and wrapped a wool blanket around me.

A squad of police officers ran into the bedroom, and big, hot, salty tears ran down from my eyes and onto my cheeks as I fell to the ground and sobbed. A guard picked me up and led me out of the room and into the downstairs foyer, then uselessly hugged me as I sat there, taken by the shock.

Outside, I heard a firetruck and ambulance roll in, and firefighters and paramedics joined the security guards, police officers, and my dead mother upstairs. They returned downstairs, two carrying a gurney that held my mother, and I helplessly followed them outside, wanting to be with Mama.

No.

Mama wasn't dead.

She was in shock from the knife. It hadn't gone in too deep, did it? She was okay. She was just exhausted and scared and worried - and getting stabbed just caused her to fall unconscious after all that stress. The monster missed the heart. She was alive. She was okay - she was just resting.

I hobbled in after them, dropping the blanket.

She was _okay._

A mustached man wearing a police badge and suit stopped me at the porch, and got down on one knee to speak to me.

"Hey. I'm Commissioner James Gordon. I know what you just saw, but you can't just run out like that," he said softly, replacing the warm wool blanket over my shoulders.

"Mama - Mama..." I was incapable of saying anything else, and Gordon pulled me into a hug, then got up and led me outside, where I saw a legion of police cars, SWAT and FBI trucks, a fire brigade, a fire truck, and two ambulances. The paramedics I had seen earlier were pushing Mama into the back of one of the ambulance, and another group of paramedics led me by the arms into the other one.

All of these people came to help us, and they were all late, I thought numbly, as I watched the paramedics shut the doors to the back of the ambulance and get ready to drive Mama away.

Later on, I was placed in a hospital room, where several nurses came in to check up on my vital signs, which were all normal, save for an overly-excited heart beat. I personally could care less what was happening to me, and insisted on getting information about my mother.

"Where's my mama? Is she okay?" The nurses didn't answer. They smiled at my apologetically.

"Do you know what happened to her? Can I go see her?" My murmurs were breaking into tears again, and the nurses left, and a doctor entered the room with Commissioner Gordon.

They both got down on their knees to face me, and I remember my head spinning painfully as I tried to wrap my head around what they were saying, blacking out afterwards.

Dr. Ariadne Van Kleiss, Ph.D, wife of Laurus Van Kleiss, had passed away. She was dead on arrival, they explained.

I had watched Mama die before my very eyes.

###

The next few weeks had been slow and painful, I remembered. Our once grand house was closed for investigation, and Officer Gordon allowed me to stay with him for a few weeks until my father's lawyer arrived. I had been taken to the police department several times a week, asked to report what I saw and how everything had happened. I felt sick of telling the same gruesome story over and over again. The room started shaking, the glass door broke, two figures made of light tornadoed around the room, I was outside, I ran inside, I saw one of them kill Mama, the red one attacked the yellow one, then they just disappeared.

The officers didn't believe me.

They'd ask me to tell them what really happened, so I'd repeat the story again, this time, tearful.

"Why _won't_ you believe me?" I had demanded, "I'm telling you - _monsters_ killed her! The suspects aren't human! They're lightning monsters!"

The officers gave each other wistful looks, apologetically handed me a lollipop and had someone come get me.

Once, while I was at the police station after another repetitious interrogation, I heard two officers discussing something in the other room.

"Do we have anything on Van Kleiss yet?"

"No. The kid is innocent, that much we know. The guards say they found her outside, and when they all ran back up to the room, the mother was dead and her kid was screaming."

"Still no suspects?"

"We can't find anything on the fingerprints behind the notes, or the voices behind the phone calls. We're literally unable to deduce anything. There's no DNA on the knife found in her chest either. Whoever did this is unidentifiable. No voice match, no fingerprint match. Its like they don't even exist."

"Well, get this," I heard some papers slap down on a table.

"Nora Allen. 32 years old. Worked two part time jobs as a librarian and as a waitress. No crime records, or anything, but sources say she was in a struggling marriage. She was killed on the same night as Van Kleiss. Her son, who was an eye witness, said the same thing as the Van Kleiss girl, except the girl said she saw a yellow and black suited man, who she claims did it. Allen's son said that the windows and glasses broke, the house was thrown into chaos, speeding red/yellow lights around his mom, then he was somehow transported outside, out of harm's way, then managed to get back in, found his mom stabbed on the floor, the human lights disappeared, and his father was convicted."

"Same _exact_ night?"

"Yep. Both murders occurred within minutes of each other. The boy lost his mother around midnight - that's when his father called the police, and the guards at the Van Kleiss house called in barely ten minutes after. But get this - "

"What?"

"The Allen murder took place in Central City. _Central._ City. That's nowhere near Cambridge, and the two women have nothing in common with each other, save for the fact that they were mothers. That's _it._ They didn't know each other, completely different backgrounds, nothing in common at all, other than their kids. And there was no actual evidence found that proved Henry Allen killed his wife. No fingerprints, no nothing."

"So we just gonna assume all single-child mothers are going to die, and that their only witnesses are gonna give us sci-fi garbage about human lightning bolts?"

"I don't know, man. I don't know what to make of this."

I remembered my heart feeling insanely heavy afterwards. Not just my mom, but another child had lost his mom as well. He was going through the same thing. I remember feeling so confused about it, then Commissioner Gordon walked in with a tall, gaunt man wearing a black suit, holding a brown leather briefcase with both hands.

"Artemis, this is Mr. Lin Walker. He's your father's lawyer. He'll be in charge of you now."

Mr. Walker smiled at me with distant eyes, thanked Gordon, then walked me out of the room. I turned around and saw Mr. Gordon smiling sadly at me. I escaped Mr. Walker's grip on my shoulder, and ran back to Mr. Gordon and gave him a hug around his waist. He had been one of the kindest people to me in this time, and had cared for me a lot when I stayed at his house. He bent down and returned the embrace.

"Thank you, Mr. Gordon."

"No problem, Artemis."

"Artemis?" I heard a voice behind me call out. It was that Walker guy. He was checking his watch. He clearly wasn't one for heartfelt moments.

"I need to go. Bye, Mr. Gordon."

"Goodbye, Artemis. Take care of yourself," Mr. Gordon replied. I turned back towards the other man and hoped he would be kind like Mr. Gordon. But little did I know that that would be the last I would see of Mr. Gordon before he relocated to a gloomy city named Gotham, where we would meet again.

###

Mr. Walker drove me without saying a word to a small cafe in downtown Cambridge, and bought two sets of lunch. He blandly placed one set in front of me, took a bite out of his own, then opened up the briefcase and pulled out several papers.

"Now, Artemis. First things first, I'm terribly sorry for your loss, it's a very difficult time for you, I hope you get better, and you definitely will," He said matter-of-factly through a mouth half full of food. I immediately disliked his business-forward attitude.

"I'm here to let you know that because you do not have any family, you will be adopted into a foster home," he began, not bothering to make eye contact, "and that this family will be the one to care for you. Because you are an only child, you will inherit all your parents' home, property and their money, but in due time. You are clearly too young for that now. Only once you reach the age of eighteen, however, will everything fall to you. Until then, I am in charge of everything. If there is anything else you would like for me to hold onto in the meantime, please let me know." He continued, signing off on the papers in front of him.

My hand reached the charm hanging from my neck. I took a second to think it over, and took it off, handing it to him.

"What's this?" he asked, looking confused.

"My - my mother's dowry," I explained solemnly, "She gave it to me the night she...died."

"Oh?" he said, closing his fingers around it. "I'll take good care of it, I promise. I'll lock it up in your parents' safe." He pulled his briefcase up, and put the necklace in one of the inside pockets.

In a few days, Mr. Walker drove me out of Massachusetts and into a small neighborhood in New Jersey, where I met my adoptive family. The middle aged parents introduced themselves as Kim and Greg Lee, and they had a small family of a son and a girl, both younger than me. They led me to a poorly decorated room with two beds, and told me I'd be sharing the room with their daughter, Kristin. Mr. Walker said his goodbyes, thanked the family, and left.

The Lees were good people, but I was not a good stepdaughter.

For one, I cried an awful lot. Nightmares of the two lightning beasts would wake me up in cold sweat, and I would scream and sob loudly, waking everyone up.

I would cry when they tried to feed me, I would cry when they tried to take me out, I would cry when they tried to comfort me with toys and hugs.

I picked fights with their children. I constantly reminded them that they were not my real family, not my real parents, that I didn't belong here - that I belonged in Cambridge, that I was a Van Kleiss. I would wreak havoc at nighttime, when Kim and Greg would try to put me to sleep, screaming that the lightning men would zoom into the room and kill me, and kill them too, causing their children to cry, frustrating everyone.

Soon, I started running away. I would go missing for several days, weeks at a time, which worried the Lees right out of their minds. I would be found a disgusting, filthy mess, and brought back - only to run away again. The Lees didn't _dare_ put me under house arrest, something they did not wish for their own children to see.

They tried to enroll me in therapy, but at my first session with the psychiatrist, when she asked me questions about how I felt and what was wrong, I snapped at her, saying she was a fake and that "talking" wasn't going to fix things, then kicked her in the shin, and stormed out, ordering Kim to take me back home.

I would run away from school after they dropped me off, and meandered into town and into small shops and stores, and steal and break things - not because I wanted to, but because I was mad and nobody did anything about it.

The world had given up on my loving parents. The world deserved to be punished at the hands of a scrawny, unkempt second grader.

Greg would be _infuriated_ when he'd receive calls from the police department, that his now nine year old stepdaughter had committed felonies - again. The few times I was in school (usually due to force), I would spit on and bully the other kids, colored with my crayons in the schoolbooks, drew angry faces with permanent markers on the walls, sneered at my fourth grade teacher that I didn't care about math and English, ripped up homework sheets in front of her, and cut them with safety scissors into alphabet letters that spelled mean things while the other children would innocently be learning about adjectives and double digit multiplication. I spent more time in the principal's office than in the classroom.

In the three and a half years I lived with the Lees, I had been kicked out of four schools, spent a total of six months on the run, had earned a rep for being the neighborhood bad kid, and had racked up nearly a thousand dollars in repair and restoration charges.

Finally the Lees called Mr. Walker and gave me up, saying I was an uncontrollable trouble maker who was becoming a horrible influence on their own children, and that their wallets were being drained from all the reimbursements they were being forced to pay because of my vandalism and small crimes.

Mr. Walker came and picked me up, and quickly handed me off to another family in Virginia, the parents having two older sons. They would be able to handle me. After all, they had raised two sons, both older than me, Walker said. They'd be able to take of me and I'd be happier with them, he promised.

My new family, the Huangs, lived in a nicer home and in wealthier conditions than the Lees. Darren Huang was an engineer, his wife Michelle a renown psychologist. They gave me my own room, bought me my own stuff, enrolled me in an affluent private school, their two older sons promising they'd be nice to me and that we would all get along, and that they'd be there for me when I was sad.

My shrieking at night and troublesome attitude allowed Darren and Michelle Huang to tolerate me for a solid three years before they too reached their limits and handed me back over to Mr. Walker, who had found another family ready to adopt me in Colorado.

The Griffin family also encountered a rebellious and rude Artemis Van Kleiss, and gave up almost immediately, sending me back to Walker in barely six months.

Walker was incredibly embittered by my turbulent actions. He didn't _dare_ put me in another family only for me to be given up again, the family complaining about my incompatibility and the long list of charges I'd create for them, the trouble I'd cause their own kids.

No, this time, Lin was taking things into his own hands.

This time, he flew me back to his home in New York, and sat me down across from me at his family dinner table, pinching the skin between his eyes.

"You should go to prison," he seethed, "Juvenile hall, where you deserve to rot away til you're allowed to leave. A kid like you - you're uncontrollable. You're a _mess_. Hitting other kids? Bullying the parents? Refusing to eat or sleep, running away, going rogue, destroying public property? What's going on with you? You've become a _psychopath."_

I shrugged, and leaned back in the chair. I crossed my arms and kicked my feet up onto the table, smiling as I watched him grow more aggravated by my behavior.

"Artemis, you're almost _thirteen_. I understand that losing your parents and leaving your home made you angry and bitter. You probably feel all alone in the world. That nobody cares for you, that nobody understands you, but you _can't_ continue to act this way."

I sighed nonchalantly and turned my hand over in my lap, looking at my fingernails - acting as if I was ignoring him and didn't care. He continued talking.

"Artemis, _listen_ to me. Look at everything you've done." He pulled out a piece of paper that read a history of all the minor crimes I had committed. Thefts at various stores in Jersey, breaking school property, tormenting and bullying other kids, harassing my foster family, running away from home in the middle of the night for weeks on end to endure homelessness. Similar items were listed for Virginia and Colorado. I tossed the piece of paper over my shoulder and crossed my arms again.

Walker's lips grew taut with anger.

"Is this what your parents would have wanted for you? For you, their only daughter, to turn out a criminal?"

"What would _you_ know about what my parents would have wanted? They're both _dead_ , Lin," I snapped, "All _you've_ done for me is hand me off to random people, asking them to look after me. You don't know what they would have wanted. You don't even _know_ me!"

Walker looked at me with cold eyes, then sighed.

"Your parents were good people, Artemis. I know that much. They were both unbelievably dedicated to their work, and to raising you. They would be incredibly disappointed to find out that their daughter is a disrespectful little punk. You _need_ to be better than this, for their sake."

I stayed silent. His words had hit a chord in me, but I wouldn't let him see that.

He pulled out more papers from his omnipresent briefcase, this time - photos. He spread them across the table for me to see.

"Your father and I were good friends. We had met back in college, and have stayed in touch ever since, despite that we walked different paths in life. He was one of the greatest people I have ever met."

I looked at vintage photos of college aged boys hanging out and laughing, recognizing a younger version of my father in some of them, a younger version of Lin Walker always close to him, always laughing alongside him.

Walker pulled more photos, this time, photos of my parents. I recognized photos from their college graduations, them giving speeches at school, wedding photos, pictures of them at the hospital holding a crying baby, pictures of them at home laughing together and at work, mixing a chemical I recognized to be vankleissium, and working with machines, and finally, pictures of my father smiling at the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, giving his speech, and my mother at her last press conference, in her red jacket.

Sadness pulled at my insides, and I fought back tears. My parents...

"Artemis, do you even _know_ who your parents were?"

I looked down, not ready for this confrontation.

"Artemis, your parents _changed_ history as we know it. There's a spot on the periodic table of elements with their name on it. With _your_ name on it. They've built a legacy - one of the greatest ones of the century - and as their only child, you're responsible for upholding it and keeping their memory alive. Have you been doing that?"

"No," I mumbled, a tear escaping my eye and burning my cheek. He was right. I wasn't happy with what had happened in the past, but how I dealt with it wasn't very respectable.

"Like I said earlier, you're almost thirteen. It's been seven years since you lost your parents, Artemis. _Seven_ years. And in those seven years, all you've done is get into trouble and hurt people - you've become the exact opposite of who your parents were."

His words finally cut through my facade, and I allowed myself to cry. He was right. I had broken my promise to Mama. I had let her down, had strayed away from what they were. I had forgotten...

Mr. Walker leaned over and handed me a tissue, then held my free hand.

"I'm not going to give you up to another family. You've proved too incapable of that. You cause trouble. This time, I'm taking matters into my own hands. You're going to live with us - w. But if you want to stay with us, you're going to need to behave. You're going to need to focus. You'll have change yourself, and you'll have to step closer to who you really are - a Van Kleiss, and the only Van Kleiss left in the world at that." He paused and took a deep breath, "Because if you don't, and you force us to give you up as well, there's really nobody left in the world who will take you in. I'll have to turn you over to juvey hall, and I can't disrespect your parents like that."

I nodded my head at him, silently. For the first time since I met him, Mr. Walker smiled at me. He reached into his bag yet again, and pulled out a small white box.

"I have a feeling, though, that this time - you won't lose track of yourself,"

He put the box in front of me, and I opened it, pulling away the white wrapping paper, revealing the old necklace my mother made for me when I was young. I put it back on, and smiled at him.

With that conversation, Mr. Walker had changed my life for better. His wife, Miranda, was kind and pretty, and was expecting a baby. Together, the two of them got me to clean up my act and become serious about my behavior and about my education too, something I had put off in my long fit of rebellion. Lin saw to my education and academics, and enrolled me in a tough school and arranged several extracurriculars for me - sports teams year-round, book clubs, performing arts and cooking classes, science competitions, everything. He kept me so busy that it barely gave me the chance to act out in between classes, games, whatnot. In fact, I was satisfied with the heavy workload. Miranda taught me to dress properly and maintain a strong, clean appearance no matter where I went. I was no longer going to be a little "street rat," and I was going to speak clearly in every situation. I was not someone to be trifled with, she taught me, and I would not little fickle matters get to my brain and contaminate me further. Alarms were placed on every window, every door to prevent me from trying to run away. New York City was not the kind of place you would want an adolescent girl to be roaming unattended, anyway.

I learned to finally accept them as parental figures, and entered an era of peace in my life. Their son, Nicholas, soon grew attached to me, and what with everything I was learning from them, I finally felt like I belonged somewhere, that things were looking up.

Then came high school, where I learned I was extremely competitive, and good at competing when it came to that. Studying came easy to me, and I earned the highest grades and highest honors, beating out the entire school. Lab science was where I excelled the most - studying chemistry and physics, easily carrying out otherwise difficult experiments, competing in science bowls, winning awards, soon lining up the Walker's living room shelf with too many trophies for it to hold. I also became a competitive athlete, sending my high school girl's basketball and the school's track teams to tournaments that I'd refuse to lose. The Walkers attended my every game, every tournament. They wouldn't let me down, not when I had so much going for me for once in my life. I was building a national reputation, and soon, representatives from universities would come knocking at the front door, informing me about the massive decision I was about to make, and how they were the 'right fit' for a student like myself.

Senior year came around, college acceptances began rolling in, and all I knew was that I wanted to go back to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Badly. I missed home. I missed the city I spent the first six years of my life in. Several Ivies and other nationally ranking schools offered me seats, but I had boiled it down between Harvard and MIT.

Mr. Walker and his family soon took me on a road trip back to Massachusetts, and I remember feeling so relieved to be back in my favorite city - the city that was my home, the home that I had stayed away from for so long. Red leaves littered the old sidewalks, the crisp, cold air flowing past my face, families walking around the vibrant town... In the end, I reluctantly chose MIT. Harvard was too close to home, brought back too many memories. But MIT seemed promising, with its unbeatable physics and engineering programs.

Lin, Miranda, and Little Nicky Walker all came to see me off on my first day at college, but also they brought bad news. I was eighteen, now. I was a legal adult, and Mr. Walker had fulfilled his responsibility to raise me. He was moving away to Los Angeles where his wife had received a tantalizing job offer, and I would be on my own now. I remember feeling disappointed and utterly heartbroken. Mr. Walker hugged me for the first and last time then, and told me I could always visit over breaks, though, and that if anything happened, he should be the first person I reached out to. He said goodbye to me for the last time, then turned and walked away.

Not a real father, I thought. He'll never be like Papa, before I myself turned around and went back to my dorm.

The man who had done so much for me had cut himself away from me. He had a burden and he had gotten rid of it. I would be on my own now.

My years in college were well spent. I flourished in the thriving, competitive atmosphere of MIT and graduated early. I had thought I would stay on the East Coast and work there, but Harrison Wells had changed that by inviting me to work at his lab. Besides, I promised Mama I would not reopen my parents' lab until I had brought Papa's murderer to justice, I thought, who was most likely her murderer too.

I bit the inside of my cheek at the thought of arriving in Central City...

 _Central City..._

That was where the other child had lost his mother!, I remembered. What's more - the red speedster from the attack on Thomspon! No wonder he seemed so strangely familiar! Could it be possible that he was the same one from the night my mother had died?

No... I hoped my mind was playing tricks on me, or else that meant I was willfully walking back towards the _same_ being that was there the night my mother had died, and possibly had a hand in killing her.

I nearly spilled my coffee on the train as I recalled something else.

Barry...

What was his last name?

Was it Allen? Was he the other boy who had lost his mother? He definitely seemed old enough, being a few years older than me. I couldn't recall him bringing up his parents, or anything else that could have alluded to an answer.

I was about to pull out my phone and look it up online, but the train suddenly stopped, causing me to look up. Outside, a sign read: " **Welcome to Central City!** " and was decorated with an urban skyline.

I had officially arrived, and was about to begin the next chapter of my life.

Little did I know how much would change.


	4. A New Home

I gathered my bags and walked out of the train station, and unexpectedly saw a trio in the arrival board, standing still and facing _towards_ the train rather than walking away from it. Caitlin, Cisco and Barry were standing together amid the sea of travelers, searching the faces for my own. Cisco held up a large cardboard sign that read "ARTEMIS VAN KLEISS".

Subtle.

I smiled and waved at them as I walked over, my mind still trying to convince me to turn around and go back home to where things made sense and I wasn't confronting the verge of death in confusing metahuman attacks.

Wrong place, wrong time, Van Kleiss, I thought, chiding myself for being so scared all the time. Central City was simply a new place to me, that's all. I was being edgy only because I'd need time to adjust. Everything would be fine.

They noticed me and smiled. Cisco speed-walked over to me and surprised me with a hug. I set a bag down and hugged him back.

"Artemis! So glad you made it back in one piece!" he exclaimed, trapping me in another hug.

"Cisco! It's so nice to see you too! I ... didn't know you guys would be coming to get me," I admitted, as Barry and Caitlin joined us. Caitlin held her arms out to me for a hug too, trapping me in a sisterly embrace.

"Well, _last_ time, you didn't wait for us. This time we thought we'd come early so you wouldn't escape us again," Caitlin admitted, raising her eyebrows as she spoke. I smiled apologetically.

"Well, I didn't exactly _recall_ the fact that you'd be busy saving the city from smoking people..." I explained comically, before turning to Barry, "Hey, Bertie. How are you doing?"

Caitlin and Cisco smiled with me as Barry broke into a smile as well, and rolled his eyes again.

"It's Barry, actually. How was your trip?" he asked, pulling one of my bags away from me before I could react.

"What - dude, give that back! I hate having other people do things for me!" I protested, trying to retrieve my bag from him. He shifted it to his other hand - away from me - and smiled at me. Behind me, someone else grabbed the large duffel bag off of my shoulder. I turned around. It was Cisco. Caitlin picked up my last carry-on and stood with it in front of her, claiming it as her own, leaving me with the smallest and lightest bag.

"Basic chivalry. Friends help friends who just traveled great distances. You have friends back in Cambridge, right, Artemis? Like, people who spend time with you and do nice things with you from time to time?" Cisco teased, as we all turned to walk out of the station and into the parking lot.

I glared at him, then rolled my eyes.

"You really don't need to do this. I was literally going to just hail a taxi or something," I complained.

"How could we not come see you? You're essentially the newest member of our family," Caitlin said kindly.

"Yeah. Dr. Wells is our kind, loving father. Caitlin and I are your older siblings, though Caitlin's gotta be the oldest because she's more mature," Cisco explained.

"What about Barry?" I asked. Barry looked over at Cisco and raised an eyebrow.

"Barry's the kid from across the street who always comes over without an invitation," Cisco joked easily. I turned and smiled at them again, enjoying the warmth I felt from their friendly surprise welcome.

"Besides, not coming to see you would've been extremely rude," Barry said, as we stopped at a giant white cargo van with the STAR Labs logo printed across the sides in dark blue. Caitlin pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the doors to the trunk, where they set all of my bags.

"Is this the STAR Labs van?" I asked, noticing how big and roomy the van was on the inside.

"What gave it away?" Barry asked jokingly, as Cisco gestured for me to sit in the front next to Caitlin, who took the driver's seat. Four sets of belt buckles later, and Caitlin started the car and began pulling out of the parking lot and into the sparkling urban city ahead.

"I meant to ask if this is the van used for your experiments and stuff. Why isn't Dr. Wells here?" I asked, noticing that there were wheelchair accomodations in the back seats.

"Well, today it's the STAR Labs moving van, but yeah. We didn't know how much luggage you'd be bringing, so we assumed the worst." Cisco responded, "For a girl moving to a new place, you barely brought anything. Lucky for you Dr. Wells is looking after your housing and whatnot, or you'd be living be sleeping on the floor if this was everything you brought to your new apartment."

"Dr. Wells is at Cloverleaf already?" I asked.

"Well, yeah. Everything was delivered to his place this morning, but he had it transported to the apartment complex. We got the day off from the lab to help you get settled in. We'll have you fitted into your new place by the end of the afternoon," Caitlin clarified as she drove on. I couldn't help but smile thankfully.

"Awww... You guys are all literally the best. This is so sweet of you," I said, my heart melting at their kindness. Dr. Wells was a good man, I thought, and these were good people.

"So... you glad to be out of college?" Cisco asked with a smirk, "Central City doesn't exactly have as much of a nightlife as a big name university would,"

I turned around to face him and rolled my eyes.

"Please. My idea of 'nightlife' consists of textbooks, test tubes, illicitly conducting experiments in my dorm building for the fun of it, and every once in a while, sleep. I'm the definition of a geeky introvert. And what with these metahumans, I think I've got more than enough excitement in my life. I'm in the right place."

Cisco and Barry laughed at me before Barry spoke up.

"Well, it is pretty thrilling here, but those metahuman attacks aren't to be taken lightly," Barry explained solemnly, "People can get hurt, and you've always gotta be careful, especially as a STAR Labs scientist."

"Yeah, I'm like a superhero or something now. I get it. Thanks, Mom," I teased, before my own words hit me... Superhero... Mom... I was about to ask them about the red alien being and Nora Allen's murder, but was interrupted by Caitlin.

"We're here! Welcome to Cloverleaf, Artemis!" she announced with a smile, as she parked the van. Outside was a beautiful four story French-Provincial styled housing complex. Green lawns lay sprawled throughout the area, with bushes bearing huge, beautiful flowers. A couple chased after a child who was blowing bubbles on the other side.

"It's gorgeous," I stated, mesmerized by the serenity of the entrance area, before turning around to get my bags. Cisco and Barry beat me to them again, each holding two bags. Caitlin locked the car, and the three began to walk into the complex. I slumped my shoulders and frowned.

"Seriously, guys?" I questioned.

"Stop complaining and get used to it. We didn't quite come all of this way to get you only to let you do all of the work yourself," Barry chided, throwing a smirk over his shoulder at me. Caitlin raised an eyebrow at me and smiled, gauging my reaction. Cisco sneered playfully.

"Oh no - my new friends are letting me take it easy after I was stuck in a train all day! I _wanted_ to carry four suitcases by myself! What am I going to do now?" Cisco whined in a falsetto voice.

"I don't sound like that," I admonished, "It's more of a _I-don't-want-to-be-a-burden-on-my-first-day-in-the-city_ kind of thing."

Cisco smiled in amusement, and I followed them through the entrance building and into a larger complex, where several sets of identical six-story buildings surrounded wide, luscious lawns. A huge Roman-style fountain gushed in the center. To the right, I saw what looked like a recreation center with a fenced-off pool and visitor's lobby. To the left was a large two-story building with several windows, and a competitive pool.

Parking spaces near the pool displayed a giant mover's truck, and a few men standing on the sidewalk in uniforms. One was wearing a black sweater and was seated in a wheelchair as he spoke to the other men.

"Dr. Wells!" I called out, hurrying over to him to greet him. He maneuvered his chair to face me and smiled in greeting.

"Ms. Van Kleiss. It's great to see you," he stated warmly, "Glad to see that you made it just in time. We only arrived with your belongings an hour or so ago."

Caitlin, Cisco and Barry caught up with me and watched as Dr. Wells signed one last clipboard and handed it back to the movers. They shut the back of the empty truck and turned to drive off.

"All of the furniture you ordered is already in your apartment. We were just waiting for you before we unpacked it so you could tell us where you preferred to have it placed." He said, as he gestured towards the building behind him.

Caitlin touched the back of my shoulder as she looked up.

"Come on, we'll show you your new place," she said, and Barry and I followed her up the stairs. Cisco went with Dr. Wells to what I imagined would be an elevator elsewhere. We climbed up four flights of stairs, and Caitlin walked over to a door in the corner of the hall. She pulled a navy STAR Labs lanyard and handed me the keys.

"Could you do us the honors?" she asked, her eyes shining happily as she smiled. I smiled back at her and took the keys, inserting them in the doorknob and pushing it away from me when I felt the lock loosen. They followed me inside and watched as I turned on the lights, illuminating a large living room with walls that were a majestic shade of light yellow accompanied with a perfect dark reddish-brown hardwood floor. Huge boxed packages were placed throughout the room. A twin-sized mattress encased in thick plastic was propped up against on of the walls.

"Woah..." I murmured, taking notice of a granite countertop which separated the living room from an elegant kitchen in the back, two bedroom doors on either side.

"You like it?" I heard Cisco ask, as he and Dr. Wells entered the room.

"I love it. This is perfect. Thank you so much."

"No need to thank us," Dr. Wells said, as he ran a hand over one of the boxes, "Just tell us where you'd like the furniture to go,"

"Oh - right," I mumbled, turning around to assess the room. Biting the inside of my bottom lip, I devised a rough floor plan, dictating where I'd like to place the furniture.

"Well, let's start with assembling the dining table first," Caitlin asserted once I was finished, as we both joined Barry and Cisco. The two men unwrapped and set the top part of the table upside down on the ground. They handed Caitlin and me one leg each along with screwdrivers and screws, and within minutes, Barry and I were flipping the table over, and placing it adjacent to the wall, as Cisco and Caitlin began working on the chairs. In under ten minutes, the four of us had completed assembling the dining table set, and Cisco plopped down in one of the chairs. Barry joined him in another chair.

"Wow, this sure is tiring work!" Cisco proclaimed dramatically. I couldn't perceive whether or not he was being sarcastic. Barry turned to us.

"Caitlin, why don't you go take Artemis down to Jitters for some breakfast? We don't want to wear her out," he asked, a small smile playing on his lips. Caitlin smiled back at him knowingly.

"What? Guys, I'm fine! We literally just got started," I objected, confused, "I'm not going to get tired from this. I have three sets of hands helping me."

Caitlin turned to me with her radiant smile.

"Have you eaten yet?" She asked, a motherly tone taking over her voice.

"No. I was gonna go eat later," I confessed. She checked her watch.

"It's almost 9:30..." She asserted, raising an eyebrow.

"Caitlin, I'm fine. I swear."

"No swearing in the house," she reproved gently, "Come on,"

She grabbed me by the elbow with an inescapable grip and walked me towards door.

"What?! No - you can't do this...!" I trailed off, turning to the men for support.

"Artemis, breakfast is the most important meal of the day," Dr. Wells reminded me with an amused smile. Cisco and Barry were smiling like goons at me as Caitlin opened the door with one hand and held me with the other. Right before we were outside and Caitlin closed the door behind her, I saw Dr. Wells turn to the men, as Barry cracked his knuckles.

"What the hell? I could've helped them," I said meekly. Caitlin smiled authoritatively at me before roping her arm through mine, and we walked down the stairs.

"No, it's fine. Let them do some work for a change. They're pretty lazy," she responded. I rolled my eyes and smiled at her.

She made small talk about the unbelievable things Cisco did when he was lazy as we walked down the sidewalk of a familiar urban street and entered a classic-themed Jitters. A small group of students had taken over a table in the corner of the shop, and Iris was in an apron, listening with smiles as a blonde man in a white dress shirt and tie, seated at a table for four, described something to her, an obvious attempt at impressing her. She turned to us when she heard the entrance bell jingle as we opened the door, and walked over to us.

"Artemis! So glad to see you've finally made it! Congrats on the new job!" She exclaimed in a friendly manner before taking me into a friendly hug. She waved at Caitlin.

"Artemis over here is trying to assemble huge pieces of furniture without any sustenance. Can you believe her?" Caitlin said with a dramatic roll in her voice as she gestured to me with her thumb, rolling her eyes,"She _just_ got off the train too."

I turned around and gaped at her in surprise. She winked at me.

"It's not as bad as it seems. I didn't want her, Cisco and Barry to be working all by themselves. They're trying to help me," I tried to explain.

Iris smiled at me again, took my hand, and walked me over to the counter where she grabbed a plate and placed various breakfast items on it with tongs.

"I know your type," she started, still wearing her gorgeous smile, "You dedicated, selfless workaholics. Always putting other before yourselves." She handed the plate to me and led me to the blonde man she was talking to earlier. She sat down in the chair in front of him, and laced her hand through his. He smiled back at her. I seated myself beside her, my stomach awash with awkwardness as I realized I might be third-wheeling.

"Always ready to put yourself in extreme situations to keep others comfortable and safe," she continued, smiling appreciatively at the man. Caitlin joined us and seated herself beside the man, in front of me.

"Hiya, Eddie," She accosted. Eddie smiled back at her and nodded his head.

"Hey, Cait. How are you?" he asked with a warm voice. I used his distraction with greeting her as an opportunity to observe him. He seemed like a kind, reserved man, and he was obviously in a relationship with Iris. He had a square face with a handsome jaw, a fine nose, and sharp blue eyes, with bright blonde hair cresting his head. He had a bit of a stocky build, and I could see he was pretty tall, but not nearly as tall as some other men I had met, including Barry.

 _Including Barry?!_ Where did that thought come from? I dismissed it as my train of thought taking a spontaneous turn, calmed down and held a hand out to Eddie.

"Hi. My name's Artemis," I greeted, "I'm the new physicist at STAR Labs."

"Oh, _you're_ the new scientist. Yeah, Iris was telling me about you. You came down last week, right?" He asked, shaking my hand.

"Yeah, last Friday,"

"Wow, I thought you'd be older," He pondered, crossing his eyebrows slightly in confusion.

"Well, you know what they say..." Caitlin began, swiping a piece of her bangs away from her eyes, "The youth of our nation are the hopes of our future."

"Caitlin, you made that up on the spot." Iris countered with a grin. Caitlin smiled and held her hands up in surrender.

"I did, actually. But it's true," she conceded, pride glowing through her eyes as she smiled at me, "Dr. Wells has been wanting to hire Artemis for quite a while now. She's got a lot to offer to the lab, he says, and I believe him."

I blushed as I took a bite of food.

"You're all making such a big deal about this," I mumbled, embarrassed by the attention, before Iris took her free hand and placed it on mine. She raised an eyebrow at me.

"You serious? Barry was telling me and my dad all about you! You're a _total_ genius!" Iris raved enthusiastically, "Eddie, you remember Laurus Van Kleiss, right? He won a Nobel prize for discovering an element that could practically save the entire world?"

"Oh - for sure. How could I not have heard of him?" Eddie said, nodding like it was obvious.

"Artemis is _his_ daughter," Iris stated.

"Aaaand she just got out of college last week! She graduated an entire _year_ earlier than the rest of her class, _with_ dual degrees, if that wasn't enough for you," Caitlin added, clearly pleased to be bragging about me. Eddie raised his eyebrows at me and the sides of his lips turned downwards in an impressed expression.

"Wow," he declared, "That really is something."

I waved them away.

"It's - it's really not as -" I stammered, only to be cut off.

"Be quiet, and accept the praise. It's not everyday we get to eat breakfast with a prodigy gifted with such intellectual prowess," Iris said, still smiling at me, before turning back to Eddie, "So, you were telling me about Thompson's attack last week?"

My ears perked up at Thompson's name, and I turned to listen to Eddie.

"I'm telling you, Iris, these metahumans are no good. Most of them are fueled by anger, and can't control any of their powers. They have to be stopped once and for all." He explained.

It finally clicked to me where I had seen Eddie before.

"Wait - you were there!" I realized out loud, "You were at the front lines with Joseph West when Thompson was on Treehill Boulevard!"

"Yeah, I'm West's - wait, how do you know?" He asked, clearly surprised by my knowledge.

"I was there too..." I stated, seeing Eddie in a new light. He was in the squadron of police officers who were trying to take him down and actually made the matter _worse_ by agitating Thompson.

"Wait, were _you_ the civilian Thompson held hostage?!" He asked, narrowing his eyes.

"Yeah... I never received the phone call or the notification to stay indoors."

"Even though Cisco and I repeatedly warned you several times over the phone," Caitlin interjected.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know," I protested, before turning to Eddie again, "What did you guys do to Thompson?"

"We planned on imprisoning him at Iron Heights. This wasn't the first time he's attacked. As soon as we got him to the police station, he regained consciousness and disappeared again," Eddie described.

I paused and licked my lips, choosing my words carefully before addressing Eddie.

"I don't mean to be the one to tell you how to do your job, Eddie, but you _do_ realize you were making the Thompson situation worse by aggravating him? He didn't intend to harm anyone - even when he had me, he had cleared an airway through the smoke to let me breathe. He's just confused."

The three of them looked at me with shocked expressions, as if I had just sprouted another head right before their eyes. Eddie looked incredibly offended.

"Please don't tell me you're actually taking _his_ side? He's dangerous. And uncontrollable. All metahumans are." Eddie said, all signs of smile gone from his face and replaced with a harsh doubt as he looked at me.

"I'm actually _am_ taking his side. He wasn't even aware of how his abilities worked, and you had him cornered like a criminal."

"So you're saying we should enroll him in therapy when we see him again, teach him how to master his abilities, then let him free?" Eddie asked in a quiet voice, challenging me, "And even if he _was_ afraid of us, he should have complied with our orders. We could have discussed the issue calmly at the police station when everyone else was safe."

I too adopted a stubborn tone in my voice.

"Why would he have stopped to talk to you when you made it so clear you were hunting him down?" I reminded, looking directly in his eyes, confronting him.

Eddie was about to counter my argument when Iris's hands shot out in front of both of us.

"Guys - please. It's obviously a sensitive matter, but arguing about who did what or what should have happened won't solve anything," She stated, her voice edged with worry. Eddie gave me a cross look, before turning to Caitlin.

"You can't have a scientist at STAR Labs with a soft spot for metas. Make sure she understands that. Because if STAR Labs fails to stop a metahuman again in the future, I know now who will be responsible."

"And Artemis - " He turned to me, "Andrew Thompson _may_ have let you live, but you saw what he was capable of. He _has_ killed others. Other metahumans have exhibited similar abilities. Controlling the weather. Exploding things by merely touching them. Teleporting. Controlling a toxic mist, similar to what Thompson could do. People have died, Artemis. And we don't care what a metahuman's background or intentions are - but we can't let lives be lost again," He voiced. He got up and dropped a kiss on Iris's head.

"Sorry for arguing with you." I said, although my tone was still harsh and stubborn. I was being childish, I realized, and I didn't want the police to be suspicious of me especially if I was working at the lab responsible for creating the metas.

"Not an issue. You're young. You're new here. I'll let it go this time. Just remember who's side you're on," he said, before leaving.

As soon as he left, Caitlin exhaled deeply, and looked at me with shocked eyes.

"Well, that was... intense. You didn't tell us _you_ were the one Thompson had captured."

"Yeah, that's totally crazy." Iris agreed, just as tense as Caitlin. I shrugged at them.

"I support the police and I absolutely value the lives of innocent citizens, but I don't think the police have the right approach to this," I announced.

"Well, what would you have them do?" Iris asked.

"I - I'm not sure. But I definitely _will_ figure something out. Caitlin, does STAR Labs have anything on Thompson?" I asked.

"No... We've been struggling to get samples of his DNA or the smoke that he makes that could help us figure out how he functions." She said, shrugging one shoulder. I nodded my head at her, taking in what she said. The three of us sat in a moment of silence, before I realized I had forgotten to ask Eddie something.

"Guys - there was another metahuman at the scene of the attack that day."

Iris and Caitlin looked at each other, then at me.

"He was red, and he kept reverberating, even when he was standing still. And - he moved impossibly fast. He saved all of me and the police force from Thompson, and took him down."

"The Red Streak," Iris said, smiling again, "I knew he'd be there."

"Do you know anything about him? I have so much to ask..." I stated. Iris looked down at the table and smiled nervously. I thought I saw her cheeks redden lightly, as if she was trying not to blush.

"Actually, I've met him a couple times. I run a blog about him. If you wanted to come over, I could show it to you. I've basically been keeping a published archive of every time he's been seen. I'd love to get your insight on Friday's attack, if you don't mind."

"Oh, I - sure!" I said, handing Iris my phone.

"Can we meet up... tomorrow?" She asked.

"The day after would be better, actually. I'm starting my first day at STAR Labs tomorrow," I explained. Iris smiled approvingly at me, and squeezed my shoulder.

"Awesome. See you Sunday then. I'll text you my address."

"Artemis, should we head back?" Caitlin asked, eyeing my empty plate. I had eaten all of the food Iris had given me.

"Oh shoot - I had forgotten all about moving in! Yeah, just let me pay, and let's go," I tossed the plate away, and walked back over to Iris, who was now cleaning up the counter. She shook her head at me and pushed me back towards the exit as I pulled my wallet out of my pocket.

"Nope - it's on the house today!" She exclaimed.

"Oh, Iris! Not you too!" I complained, as Caitlin chuckled at me.

"Fine - if you want to pay me, visit me on Sunday and we'll discuss what you saw," Iris voiced, "That'll make me happy."

Caitlin and I thanked Iris and bid her goodbye, then laughed as we made our way back to the apartment complex.

"She's so nice. Can't blame Barry for that crush he's got on her. Eddie's a lucky guy."

Caitlin chuckled in response.

"Yeah, from what I've heard, she's been trying to get her editor at the CCPN to consider publishing her blog articles on the Red Streak. But he's not up for it, so she's being stubborn about it."

We continued to talk about other things about the city, and finally arrived back at my apartment. I opened the door to find Cisco and Barry laughing and lounging on a black leather sofa, Dr. Wells smiling in his wheelchair beside them. In the mere thirty or so minutes I had been gone, they had set up the entire living room as I had planned for it to turn out. There was even a television stand across the couch, with a large plasma screen TV docked upon it.

"What - how did you guys do this so quickly on your own? We weren't even gone for an hour!" I asked with surprise in my voice. I walked over to the left bedroom and saw that it too had been neatly furnished with a fully constructed bed and mattress, two nightstands on either side, desk and chair positioned against the wall, facing the window.

All four of them - including Caitlin - smiled smugly at me.

"Guess you two were just slowing us down," Cisco announced with a shrug.

"This isn't even possible." I stammered.

"Well, if you want, we could take it all down and let you do it all again at your _own_ pace," Barry offered. I slumped my shoulders and narrowed my eyes at him.

"That's not what I meant, _Gary_ , but thanks," I said, looking around at my furnished house, before turning back to my friends, "Jeez, this is so awesome of you. I can't thank you enough," I admitted, walking over to Cisco and hugging him. Strangely enough, I thought it would be awkward to hug Barry, so I just smiled at him. I frowned at the television stand, a thought bugging me.

"I don't remember ordering that..." I confessed. Dr. Wells smiled at me.

"Just as I told you last week - Small gift from me to you, on behalf of you starting your work as early as you could." he asserted.

"What - arranging _all_ of _this_ wasn't enough for you, sir?" I asked, as Cisco, Barry and Caitlin laughed.

"Well, I did notice something was missing from your order, so I thought 'why not, Wells?' She's going out of her way to get here early."

I thanked him again, overflowing with gratitude.

"Well, now what? We finished early," Cisco asked. I checked the clock. It read 10:04. I was about to shrug, before I noticed my bags neatly arranged by the doorway.

"I guess I'll just finish unpacking," I proclaimed, walking over to the largest of the suitcases and unzipped it. I pulled out several picture frames depicting my family, and held them in my arms.

"Do we still have the hammer and the nails?" I asked.

Barry gestured to the counter, where there were several tools placed.

"Are you going to need help with that?" he asked, watching as I placed the pictures on the counter.

"Nope! You guys get to take a break now. You've all done more than enough for me!" I stated immediately, knowing that I'd die of guilt if they did anything else.

"Will you need help setting up Wi-fi or anything of the sort?" Cisco offered.

"Cisco, she went to the best technical school in the world. Don't insult her intelligence," Caitlin reprimanded. Dr. Wells smiled at the comment.

"Trust me. I'll be fine," I assured them, before deciding to go back to my other suitcase, where I pulled out towels and bedsheets and other household needs. "I can take it from here,"

"But what do _we_ do?" Cisco asked, still confused.

"You've got the day off. Go do whatever you usually do when you're free," I suggested, opening up a closet and organizing the towels and bedsheets on the shelves.

Cisco looked at Caitlin, then at Dr. Wells.

"But we're never free. Dr. Wells keeps us imprisoned at the lab."

"Then do whatever you _wish_ you could do if you were free."

"But Dr. Wells doesn't let us use our imaginations," he continued. Caitlin eyed him suspiciously with a raised eyebrow. Barry smiled at him, looking bemused. Dr. Wells pursed his lips as he seemed perplexed by Cisco's words.

"Cisco, what are you -" Dr. Wells started, before being interrupted.

"Please, Artemis. Let us stay and help you. Save us from evil, scary Wells," Cisco pleaded, putting on what I assumed was his sad puppy face.

"Oh... I get it," Dr. Wells murmured, realization settling into his eyes.

"You all have done more than enough for me. I can take it from here," I repeated to them, closing the closet door.

"No. What Cisco's saying is true, Artemis. I have an evil, torturous plan cooked up for them back at the Lab. You really should let them stay here with you where it's safe," Wells admitted, cocking his head to one side, trying to read my face for a reaction. Caitlin broke into a smile and Barry gave a light laugh.

"That's enough. If you guys keep begging to help me, I'm going to have to kick you out," I said, walking over to them. I grabbed Barry and Cisco by the elbows just as Caitlin had grabbed me earlier, and led them towards the door. Though both were probably much more stronger than me physically, they allowed me to walk them over to the entrance.

"Noooooooo, we're doomed now. Artemis has betrayed us," Cisco moaned in false agony. I released Barry's arm and opened the door, then made a show of throwing them outside, dusting my hands.

"Seriously? How could you do this to us?" Barry interrogated with mock seriousness.

"Bye Cisco. Bye Larry," I chirped, leaving the door open. I heard Cisco laugh behind me. I turned back towards Caitlin and Dr. Wells, still standing in the doorway.

"I'll walk myself," Caitlin said, raising her hands up in surrender as she turned away from the kitchen, and walked out the door, joining Cisco and Barry outside. Dr. Wells used the joystick control on his wheelchair to drive himself over the front, crossing over the threshold.

"I really don't mean to be rude, but I'm not going to let you guys stay if you keep begging to help me. You've done more than enough, and I truly do appreciate all of your help and kindness, but I can't let you do everything. I gotta pull _some_ of my own weight, you know,"

They all smiled at me. Caitlin stepped forward and embraced me tightly.

"We are so glad to have you here with us," she declared. She pulled away and held me at arm's length.

"If you need anything or want to come over just to say hi, I'm in Building 4, third floor. Apartment number 4310. Dr. Wells will give you the key." she said, before stepping away.

"Dr. Wells will give me what?" I asked, unsure if I heard properly.

"All STAR Labs associates have keys to each other's homes. Just lab protocol, in case, you know, we gotta save each other from metahumans," Cisco explained, before giving me a bear hug. It didn't sound completely honest, but I wasn't going to ask him to explain further.

"Um. Okay."

"We'll usually let you know beforehand if we're coming, and obviously we still respect each other's privacy. Though, if you happen to have Cheesies in your kitchen, and you find that they've gone missing, there's an 84% chance it was me."

"Oh - don't worry. I hate Cheesies. If you ever find a bag at my place, assume they're there _for_ you." I replied. Cisco clapped with glee. I finally turned to Dr. Wells. He pulled something out of a pocket - a lanyard identical to Caitlin's, with four keys and a nametag hanging from it. I took them from him, and the five of us began to leave the building.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, these are yours. Don't trust anyone with them, and keep them with you at all times, though I have a hunch you're already a very responsible person."

I took the lanyard from him. The nametag had STAR Lab's logo on the back, with my name, position and a photo of myself on the other side, though I wasn't sure where Dr. Wells got that photo. Three of the keys were engraved : CS/A-4310, CI/B-7605, AVK/A-1407. The last was not labeled, but had the Lab logo on it.

"I'll come and check up on you later?" Caitlin asked. Cisco and Barry were helping Dr. Wells into the van, and I smiled and nodded at her.

"Sounds good," I agreed, before hugging her one last time. I could already tell her and I were going to become good friends.

"No - wait! Caitlin! Didn't you forget? Today's Friday!" Cisco announced, hopping out of the van to address us. Barry joined him.

"Oh - right!" she recalled, biting her lower lip, as she tried to say something, but was unable to find the right words.

"What Caitlin here is trying to say is that a three of us usually go... hang out... on Fridays. Wanna come with us?" Barry explained, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Sure. Why not?" I replied, before I could think it over and say no. Maybe the city was a lot nicer than its first impression had led it to be. It had to be, right?

"Awesome. We're heading back to the lab now, but we'll pick you up at eight. Shoot us a call if you need anything," Cisco said with a smile, giving me a fist bump.

"Alright. Bye Artemis, see you later," Barry greeted, awkwardly waving goodbye before getting back in the van. Cisco and Caitlin followed up with similar greetings, and I watched and waved them goodbye as they drove out of the complex and back into the city, Dr. Wells smiling at me through the window.

My new friends had helped me move into the city, and had left me with very little to do on my own. My employer, a world-renown scientist and a friend of my parents, had _personally_ seen to my adjustment. Caitlin and Iris were beginning to grow on me, Cisco was really _really_ friendly and had a warm sense of humor, and Barry was kind, although something about him bothered me - I just couldn't tell what. How on earth did the two of them set up the entire apartment in under half an hour?

They probably worked on multiple items at once, I concluded reluctantly, although the answer didn't make sense and I _still_ wasn't able to reach a consensus about how they could have done it in such a short amount of time.

Forget it, I thought. Your friends came in and did so much for you while all _you_ did was eat breakfast, argue with a cop, then kick them out. I promised to thank them again when I saw them later tonight, although I had no idea where we'd be going or what we'd be doing.

Can't be anything horrible, right? Worst case scenario - they'd take me to some freak show circus and they'd find out clowns scared me into peeing myself, although that hadn't happened since I was two - which happened to be the last time I ever saw a clown.

I entered my apartment and plopped down on my new couch, sighing contentedly as I rested my feet on the coffee table.

I'd be starting work tomorrow, I remembered dreamily. Another thing to look forward to - Artemis Van Kleiss, a physicist at STAR Labs.

Things were seriously beginning to look up for me, and I found myself awash with hopefulness and gratitude for everything that had happened that day, for being able to make it this far - for doing something that might make my parents proud of me.

I had no idea how wrong I would be.


	5. STAR Labs

I spent the remainder of the day running around town, visiting grocery and furniture stores in order to finalize my moving in, gathering groceries and extra necessities for my house and whatnot. Around 2 pm, the place was more or less how I wanted it to be.

I showered and settled in for a nap, awoken some time later by a pair of voices whispering outside of my room.

"Cisco - we don't even know if she's at _home_!" a voice that sounded like Barry's hissed.

"Nonsense. What's the worst that could happen?" Cisco responded calmly. I heard a kitchen cabinet creak opened, before it was closed.

"Oh, I don't know - _she could have us arrested for tresspassing_?!" Barry urged, "Come on, we don't even know her that well. Let's not have her hate us on her first day?!"

"Her first day is tomorrow, genius."

Another set of cabinets was opened then closed, followed by Cisco mumbling "Nope, not here either."

I leapt out of bed, and peeked through the barely opened door. Cisco was rummaging around in my kitchen - presumably looking for food. Barry was standing in the living room, hands in his hair, looking very worried and embarrassed. I opened the door in its entirety and stepped into the room.

"Hi?" I asked, surprising them both.

"Oh - hey, Artemis," Cisco tried, closing a drawer, "We came to get you..."

"What time is it?" I inquired, rubbing sleep out of my left eye. Outside, it looked dark. How long was I asleep? Barry checked his phone before responding.

"It's 7:43. This was all his idea, by the way," he requested, "Please don't have me arrested."

"We did call beforehand, but you didn't reply, so we decided to check in on you ourselves," Cisco explained, with a small guilty smile.

I grabbed my phone off of the counter. 12 text notifications from Cisco. 4 from an unknown number I assumed was Barry. One from Caitlin. 23 missed calls total.

"And by 'decided to check in on you ourselves', you mean scour my kitchen for Cheesies?" I asked, crossing my arms.

Cisco smiled and nodded guiltily. I smiled in spite of the situation and walked over to the pantry, retrieving a jumbo-sized bag of the iconic snack.

"All yours, pal," I said, throwing the bag to him. He caught it and beamed, awestruck.

"You are a goddess," he whispered, taking a seat on a bar stool by the counter and opening the bag, "Thank you."

"No prob," I answered coolly, before turning to Barry.

"Name one good reason why you two shouldn't be arrested, again?"

"Because I work at the police department," he blurted, "And not only would I lose my job and probably not be able to get another one after for as long as I live, but my stepdad would laugh at me for this for all eternity."

I laughed at his reasoning and shook my head at him.

"You both are very interesting characters. Where's Caitlin at, by the way? Didn't she say she'd come check up on me? By which, I assume she meant _actually_ check up on me?" I questioned, tossing Cisco a playful glance. He blushed.

"She's up at her apartment getting ready. Which you should _probably_ be doing too, I think," Barry acknowledged.

I looked down and yelped. I was wearing gray pajamas decorated with scientific equations and graphs. I looked back up at Cisco and Barry, and nodded, feeling my cheeks turn hot.

"Good observation. Give me five minutes," I admitted, before turning back towards my room.

"Your hair looks gorgeous, by the way!" Cisco called out in a friendly voice, mouth full of Cheesies.

"Cisco!" Barry reprimanded in a friendly tone. Cisco laughed in response.

One hand immediately shot up to my head, and a small squeal involuntarily escaped my throat as I found my hair to feel like a large dry, wiry mess. It probably looked just as bad, if not worse. I dashed into the room and shut the door behind me, changing out of my pajamas into jeans and an old flannel shirt, throwing a light hoodie on in case it got cold. I slipped my feet into old oxfords, and quickly brushed my rat's nest of black hair, and tied it back in a loose bun.

"When she said five minutes, do you think she meant, like, literal five minutes, or Caitlin's version of five minutes?" I heard Cisco ask.

I opened the door, and went back outside. Cisco and Barry were outside, facing away from me, sharing the Cheesies.

"I mean..." I began as I put my glasses on and walked over to them, surprising them by snatching a Cheesie out of the bag.

"I can always go back in and come back out in Caitlin's version of five minutes if you're unhappy," I said, with a shrug.

"No, no. That's fine." Barry reciprocated, shaking his head at me.

"That was, like, two minutes. Caitlin takes _forever_." Cisco said, rolling his eyes.

"Forever? Please, I honestly don't take _that_ long," a female voice joined in. Caitlin had unnoticeably entered my living room and was facing us in a simple but elegant sleeveless dress. She ran a hand through her hair, "You both left the front door unlocked."

"Hey, Cait," I greeted, before turning back to Barry, "Now, when you said hang out, you meant somewhere other than my place, right? Because I did _not_ change into jeans just to stay at home."

He laughed, then gestured towards the front door.

"Ready when you are."

I nodded at them, grabbed my phone, wallet and keys, then walked with them out the door. As we arrived at the parking lot, I checked out my friends. Cisco and Barry were dressed pretty casually - Cisco in jeans, graphic tee, and flannel, Barry in a dark blue sweater and jeans. Caitlin, on the other hand, had obviously gotten ready for the occasion in her party-style dress. I hoped we weren't going somewhere where I too was expected to show up dressed nicely.

"So... where exactly are we headed?" I reluctantly asked.

"The South Side Dive. It's where you wanna be on Friday nights. Trust me," Cisco replied, pointing a pair of car keys at a sedan parked a few spaces away. The headlights blinked.

"We're going diving?" I asked. I stopped walking and gave them a look of disbelief, "Um. Isn't it a little too late for that? And, um, I can't help but notice we're not really dressed for the occasion?"

The trio laughed at me.

"Cisco, she just moved to the city today. She wouldn't know what a dive is," Caitlin chided in her friendly voice, as she got into the back seat. I joined her on the other side. Cisco took the front wheel, and Barry caught shotgun.

"Artemis, we're going to a dive bar in the south district. Karaoke night today," Caitlin continued. Oh shoot. A _bar_. That explained her dress. Nerves swarmed my stomach.

"Uh. Okay." I responded numbly.

"You're of age, right?" Cisco asked, eyeing me through the rear-view mirror as he drove into a shadier part of town I didn't recognize.

"Yeah. 'Course I am," I mumbled.

"Something wrong?" Barry asked.

"No, no, I'm fine." I responded, faking a smile at him. Truth be told - I had never had a drop of alcohol in my life, and I wasn't exactly willing to start the night before my first day at work. I was just about to tell them that, when Caitlin, who was touching up her lipstick beside me, spoke up.

"Barry, you'll driving us home after? Just in case?"

Barry looked at her and smiled with a small sigh.

"Of course I will, Cait."

"Aight - we're here," Cisco declared after a while, parking his car by a run-down restaurant.

About a hundred or so feet away, a young couple was loudly yelling at each other, slurring their words in total intoxication, before the man hunched over the sidewalk, hands on his knees, and retched, upchucking great orangish-green heaves of vomit. The woman put her hand on his back and cheered him on enthusiastically.

The sight made my stomach churn with disgust. I did _not_ want to be here. I wrapped my jacket closer around myself and reluctantly followed the trio into the building, weaving our way through a room full of high tables lined with bar stools, until we reached the back of the restaurant, where a stage had been set up for karaoke. Two girls were doing a off-tune job of harmonizing a pop song, and people seated around them laughed and talked.

" _This_ is the place to be on Friday nights?" I inquired skeptically, butting in between Cisco and Barry, not hiding my remorse for the loud, shabby place. It smelled pungently of alcohol, and the people were noisy and immodest. Caitlin led us over to four empty chairs near a counter backed by a wall of drinks, a barista waiting to serve.

"Well, yeah. It doesn't look like much at first, but this place is awesome," Cisco answered with a grin. Caitlin had already placed orders for her drinks, and Cisco soon did the same. Barry declined, then all eyes were on me, waiting to see what I'd do.

"Um. I'll have water?" I asked nervously, wanting to strictly stay in my safety zone. Caitlin and Cisco eyed me suspiciously.

"Artemis, it's a Friday night. Loosen up," Caitlin ordered, before swallowing her glass of whatever that was in a single gulp, taking a deep breath afterwards. She immediately ordered another.

"Yeah, what's the holdup?" Cisco asked, taking a slow sip of his drink. "We're here to have fun."

"Yeah, it _is_ Friday, but we have work tomorrow?" I tried, thanking the barista once I received my glass of water. She frowned at me, then turned away.

"That's fine. I don't really drink either," Barry explained, smiling at me. Behind us, the crowd had finally boo'd the two girls off of the stage, and a man in his 40s took their place, nodding his head fervently as a rock song came on.

"Oh. Awesome. You've got yourself an extra designated driver in case you wanna get something to drink too," I offered, though I had no idea how I'd fare if I had to chase after three drunken adults by myself, each of whom I barely knew.

"Nah. It's fine. I know how to look after these two." Barry explained, looking at his friends. Caitlin, it seemed, was already on her third drink. Cisco laughed loudly and punched Barry in the shoulder, the alcohol loosening his inhibitions.

"HAHAHAHAHA. Yeah. This guy has amazing reflexes, I gotta tell you," Cisco announced, "He's just incredible. You wouldn't believe it. The things he can do..."

He clasped Barry on the shoulder, his voice trailing off into joyful giggles. Barry shot him a warning glance, to no avail. Caitlin slammed her glass loudly on the table, breathing heavily.

"Woah, take it easy, Caitlin," Barry warned with a voice full of worry. I watched tensely as Caitlin's hand reached up and lusciously fluffed her hair, her eyes closed.

"No. No, Barry. I needed this. I reallydineed this," She mumbled, her words slurring together.

"Bad week?" I asked. Caitlin took a deep breath before nodding her head at me.

"Ima go get something to eat," Cisco stated cautiously, before getting up. Barry went with him.

"Was it because of me?" I questioned Caitlin reluctantly, hoping Wells hadn't been putting a lot of pressure on my teammates for my sake.

"Oh - no, not at all. Just - crazimmetas," She said, eyes falling back to the table.

"Oh," I answered, noticing how Caitlin wasn't in the mood to talk.

I vaguely learning something about alcoholic beverages affecting the mood, sometimes turning the drinker completely melancholy. I acknowledged Caitlin, and we turned to watch the man onstage finish up his rock song, the crowd clapping as he finished.

"We're baaaaaaack," Cisco announced behind us in a musical voice after a while, placing several large plates of chips and salsa on our small table.

"Woah... How many plates is this? Five? Six?" Caitlin uttered, squinting her eyes.

"Yeah. Seven. This is why you never order food when you're drunk." Barry reported with a sigh, placing the rest of the dishes on the tabletop, "Hope you like nachos, Artemis,"

"Are you kidding?! I love chips and salsa!" I immediately dove for a plate, but a weary-eyed Cisco pulled it away from my hand.

"No. This my plate. Mine. Get your own," he grumbled, hunching over the plate and protecting it in the crooks of his arms. I smiled pitifully at him and reached a free plate. Caitlin had downed another drink. Both seemed beyond conversation at this point.

Barry, however, was still sober.

"Um. So..."

"You having fun?" He asked, putting his smile back on.

"I am now," I responded with a smile, putting a tortilla chip dipped with salsa in my mouth. Barry grinned. I couldn't help but notice his hair was a little different today than the other times I had seen him, carelessly swept forward rather than to the side. It was a nice look on him, I thought.

"You know, even for someone new to the city, you really do seem pretty uncomfortable here," he confessed. I shook my head before answering.

"What? Pshh - no. I love Central City -"

"I meant _here_ here..."

"Oh... right. Guess it's just because this is my first time at a bar?"

"Really, now?" He asked, interested by my little predicament, "You should have told us. We could've gone somewhere else. We'd hate to make you feel uncomfortable,"

"Oh - no. It's fine. I'll be okay. I just don't want to drink anything. It's not an issue," I assured, not wanting him to feel bad. On the other side of the counter, Caitlin was giving Cisco a dead-eyed stare as he guffawed loudly at a joke he presumably made himself.

"So you've never had alcohol before?"

"Nope," I answered flatly.

"I KNEW IT!" A drunk Caitlin proclaimed, focusing her attention onto me as she pointed a trembling finger at me, "No wonder you're not enjoyin' here. She hates havin' fun,"

"What - no, Caitlin, I just -"

"Party pooper," Caitlin muttered, giving me an evil glance, taking another sip of her drink. Empty glasses was beginning to pile up in front of her.

"Jeez, how much did you drink?" Barry asked, worry replacing his smile as he reached over and pulled her hand away from yet another glass.

"Too much. I'm goin' to za bathroom," She struggled to get up, and one of her legs gave way under her. Barry jumped from his chair, and supported her up. She regained what was left of her composure, before throwing me another dirty look.

"Do som'in about her, Burry," She muttered, doing a bad job of trying to sound threatening. Barry gave her a concerned but promising nod before she staggered away.

"Now then, where were we?" He asked, facing me and Cisco, who had turned eerily quiet and was eyeing us carefully, looking rather unimpressed. The house-of-tortilla-chips he had constructed on his paper plate collapsed.

"Bad flirts, both of you," He mumbled, looking up at us with disapproving eyes.

"What?" Barry and I asked in unison.

"'Said yer both bad flirts. Caillen's right. Armis -" He got up, yanked me out of my chair before I could react, pinning one hand on my shoulder to keep me from running away. He grabbed Barry by the forearm and pulled him up too, standing him uncomfortably close to me. Barry tried to protest, but Cisco silenced him with salsa-covered finger to his lips. Barry looked disgusted and confused by the gesture.

"Cisco, what on _Earth_ are you -" I tried to ask.

"Quiet. You're both boring. Tryna help you out," he slurred. He took a long, angry look at the both of us, before his eyes lit up with recollection.

"I'm forget best part," he mumbled quietly with a small chuckle. He quickly grabbed mine and Barry's hands in his own crumb-covered ones, then hit them together, grumbling under his breath. He turned our hands over, as if checking to see what was wrong with them.

"What exactly are you doing?" I demanded in a firm but gentle voice, trying to pull my hand away, to no avail.

He seemed confused. He was drunk - he'd regret this in the morning, right? There was no sense behind his actions?

Cisco finally managed to wrap my fingers loosely around Barry's so we were holding each hands, and stepped back, finally happy with the result.

Embarrassed by the unexpected physical contact, I jerked my hand out of Barry's, but Cisco leapt forward and grabbed it, and began panicking.

"No, no, no, no, no, _no_. You broke it," He wailed in sheer lament, clutching my hand as if it had died. He looked at me with mourning eyes, "Why'd you do that? _Whyyyyy_?!"

Was he about to start crying?

Barry immediately grasped my hand back in between his, purposely avoiding eye contact with me.

"Better?" he asked with hopefulness. The sobbing sounds coming from Cisco's throat ceased, and he looked back at us with cheeks covered in tears, eyes reddening. He wiped a tear away from his eye with a grubby hand, and studied us for a second, sniffling softly as he nodded. I glared at Barry.

"Right... um," I slowly pulled my hands out of Barry's, but he held tight, stopping me with a look of warning.

"Don't," he pleaded, "He'll make a scene."

Cisco was smiling at us like a pleased child, watching us both with wide, slightly bloodshot eyes, hands folded by his cheek. I frowned and tried to pull my hands out of Barry's again.

"He already did. Let me _go_ ," I commanded, yanking my hands out. Cisco was about to object and start wailing again, but was interrupted by Caitlin, who had returned.

"Wha're you two doin'?" She asked, chortling at the sight of Barry and I embarrassed. She walked over behind me, and wrapped her arms around my shoulders.

"Look a'her. She's so new here. STAR Labs' new lil' baby," She gushed, cuddling my head next to hers, "So inn'cent and confoos'd."

My attempts to pull myself out of her arms were hopeless, and Cisco and Barry both grinned at the sight of us. Cisco snickered and stepped forward, tickling me under my chin.

"Awww, shelikesyou, Armis, " he rhapsodized, before placing his head right on top of mine. He pinned his arms around my own, right under Caitlin's. I heard him sniff with his head still on top of mine. I was terribly surprised by the hug, and looked desperately to Barry for help.

"Awww, Burry, she smells so nice too," He praised, before placing his nose back into my hair, "Like flowers. Pretty, pretty flowers."

I gave Barry a pleading look.

"Help?" I moaned. He shook his head and smiled, pulling out his phone, pointing the camera at us.

"No can do. This is a _highly_ critical process as your initiation at STAR Labs. They're catching onto your scent and claiming you as one of their own. Say cheese."

Cisco and Caitlin both repeated _cheeeeeeese_ like kindergartners, pulling me in closer. I rolled my eyes and smiled falsely. A minute or so passed and Barry kept snapping pictures.

As annoyed as I was, though, I felt warmed by their gesture.

"You know, despite the fact that they're both drunk beyond measure _and_ invading my personal bubble, I really do like them," I admitted to Barry.

Barry beamed at us and turned around, lifting his camera in selfie-position. I scowled, unimpressed with Barry thinking this was funny, and my dutiful huggers both gave bubbly giggles and smiled lazily.

 _"Now, then, ladies and gentlemen. That last act concludes our singles and duets for the night. We'll be moving onto group karaoke now. Groups of no less than three, no more than six,"_ a man standing at the stage announced through the microphone, searching through the crowd hopefully. _"Do we have any volunteers?"_

"Ooooh! Oooooh! Oooooh!" Cisco cried out like a child, releasing one arm off of me to wave it wildly through the air, "Pick us! Pick us!"

"Inishi - Initiation! Arremis, this's your righta passage!" Caitlin garbled just as excitedly as she looked at me.

A determined grip on my arm, she wrenched me free of Cisco's hug and walked confidently to the stage. I tried to stop her, kicking my heels into the ground helplessly as she resolutely led me to the stage, with Cisco tagging right behind us, doing a little joyful dance. I felt my cheeks burn hot with mortification as the entire restaurant turned to watch us - Caitlin pulling me with one arm, Cisco pushing my back forward now.

"Ahh, we've got our first group ready, it seems," the host divulged, "Or 2 of the 3, at least."

A collective laugh rose from the audience as Cisco put his arm around my shoulder and leaned on me, the both of us almost falling over onto a proud looking Caitlin.

"And what are your names?" The host asked. Caitlin took the microphone from him and smiled gorgeously at the crowd.

"My name's Caitlin Snow," she announced, standing straight and tall, beaming, her voice unbelievably clear as she addressed the crowd, "An' this here's Arrimis - she's a scientist!"

I had been trying to furtively step back away from the spotlight, but Caitlin quickly grabbed me and pulled me forward to the edge of the stage to show me.

"Isn't she pretttttyyyyy?" Caitlin gleamed. The audience laughed. Barry was trying to hide a smile behind his hand at the counter in the back of the room, where we had been earlier.

I glared at him for thinking getting embarrassed in front of an entire restaurant was something to laugh about. I was pretty sure I had turned tomato red.

"Caitlin, stop..." I begged, murmuring my plea. I didn't want to be on stage, let alone be _embarrassed_ on stage. She apparently didn't register what I said.

"What was that?" She asked, shouting right into the microphone.

"Nothing!" I repeated, snatching the microphone away from her. The crowd was anxiously watching our little feud. I found a voice that wasn't mine and spoke into the microphone.

"Can - can we give Caitlin a round of applause, please? For that beautiful introduction?" I asked nervously.

Lucky for me the audience burst into an amused, supportive round of clapping. An employee placed two more microphone stands in front of us, and Cisco took one.

"My name's Francisco Ramon," he began, speaking surprisingly smoothly. He ran a hand through his black hair, "But y'all can just call me Cisco. Ladies, you can call me whatever and _whenever_ you want."

Some girls in the crowd giggled as Cisco winked at them.

A psychedelic song with a bittersweet tone came on, and the karaoke screen in front of us turned on, reading "God Only Knows - The Beach Boys".

"Oh! Love this song!" Cisco whispered to me, lightly snapping in tune with the beat. I turned to Caitlin, who was gently swaying her body in a small dance.

"I don't know this song. Guys, what do I do?" I hissed, my heartbeat rising in panic from stage fright.

"S'relax 'n read the words." Caitlin responded nonchalantly.

That didn't help me at all.

I looked to Cisco, knowing I'd be making a fool of myself if I continued.

"Don' panic. Just enjoy it. Nobody remembers kar'oke 'nyway," Cisco added, smiling at a table of girls below the stage.

"I can't sing," I pleaded. Cisco frowned at me. Caitlin held her mic up to her face and began followed the words that came up on the screen in a gentle, silvery voice.

" _I may not always love you._

 _But as long as there are stars above you,_

 _You never need to doubt it._

 _I'll make you so sure about it._

 _God only knows what I'd be without you_ ,"

The crowd clapped and cheered at Caitlin's performance. I too was beyond impressed. She smiled at me, the glow in her eyes quickly shifting to discomfort as she put her hand to her stomach and suddenly turned ill, looking at me with still fear. I quickly put my hands to her back and arm, and asked if she was okay. Beside me, Cisco gave us a glazed look of concern before reading the prompts on the screen for the next person in a warm, but jittery, voice.

" _If you should ever leave me,_

 _Though life would still go on, believe me._

 _The world could show nothing to me._

 _So what good would living do me?_

 _God only knows what I'd do without you._ "

Again, the crowd cheered, and the song took on a brief instrumental number. Caitlin didn't look any better, and was leaning entirely on me for support, turning green in the face. I was about to turn and lead her off the stage, hopefully take her to the bathroom, when Barry walked up and joined us, the crowd cheering loudly. Caitlin turned away from me and embraced him. He put his arm protectively around her, and held her as she closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder. He gestured for me towards the screen, where the prompt for the third person was about to begin. I had completely forgot I was about to sing. I forced myself to relax, and read the stanza that appeared in a quivering voice, trying my best to copy the rhythm of the soft song.

 _"If you should ever leave me,_

 _Though life would still go on, believe me._

 _The world could show nothing to me._

 _So what good would living do me?_

 _God only knows what I'd do without you._ "

To my surprise, the crowd responded well, clapping warmly. Barry and Cisco both smiled at me, and the last lines appeared on the screen. Barry took the mic from Caitlin's loose grip and sang with Cisco and me in a low, smooth voice.

" _God only knows what I'd do without you._

 _God only knows what I'd do without you._

 _God only knows what I'd do without you._ "

The crowd burst into their final round of applause and cheer, and Cisco encouragingly squeezed my hand.

"See? Not so bad," he mumbled, drowsy with alcohol. Barry had already slipped off of the stage with Caitlin, nowhere to be seen. Cisco bowed to the crowd, and we got off the stage, the next group of karaoke-ers taking our place. Cisco held my arm in his own, and smiled goofily.

"We gotta bring you here more often," he murmured, eyes drowsy with drunkenness as his other hand played with a loose strand of my hair.

 _Please don't bring me here ever again,_ I prayed.

After about ten minutes of listening to people sing with a befuddled Cisco leaning his head on my arm, Barry returned to us, gently leading Caitlin with his arm around her waist. Her face looked pale, as if she had thrown up, and she looked very _very_ exhausted. Barry carefully steadied her in a chair, then patted Cisco's pockets, pulling out a set of car keys. He pulled Cisco away from me, and held him up under his arms.

"We gotta get these guys home," He asserted, his voice worried, "Could you, um, help me with Caitlin?"

"Of course." I responded, jumping to my feet. Caitlin had slumped over onto the table, and watched Barry leave with sad brown eyes.

"Barry, don't go..." she whimpered, but he was already out of audible range, lugging Cisco through the crowd.

"It's alright, Caitie. I've got you," I said in a kind voice. I took my jacket off and slipped it over her bare arms, and put my arm around her back, pulling her up like I had seen Barry do to Cisco.

"But Barry's only person strong enough," she murmured, stumbling in her heels. I steadied her, then knelt down to remove her stilettos from her feet.

"Strong enough to do what?" I asked, unlacing her shoes from her ankles and lifting her calf to remove them.

"To save me," she said meekly, "To save everyone,"

I smiled at her as I walked her to the exit.

"Well, today _I_ get to be the one saving you," I comforted her, though I had no idea what she was saying about Barry.

He had probably looked after her enough for her to consider him a trusted, responsible friend?

That had to be it.

"You have seed too?" She asked, eyes growing wide with amazement.

"Seed?" I asked, opening the door and guiding her outside.

"So fast," She murmured, looking down and giggling, "I'm barefeeted,"

I ignored her words and guided her over to Cisco's car. Barry closed the passenger side door and walked over to us, holding his arms open for Caitlin. She threw her arms around him and buried her head in his neck.

" _My_ hero," she murmured happily, glad to see her friend again. Barry disregarded her words and picked her up bridal-style, turning back to the car. I strode over and opened the backseat door for him.

"Thank you, Artemis," He said, placing Caitlin inside and buckling her up. Caitlin looked at us outside with heavy eyes.

"Bree, she's 'ike you," she mumbled.

"What?" Barry asked, looking between the both of us with confusion.

"She a seed'ter too," she murmured slowly, in awe. Barry blinked at her and closed the door, taking a deep, nervous breath.

"Drunk people, right? Don't know half the things they're saying," He said with a worried laugh, looking at me with an uneasy expression. I smiled in response, unsure of how to react.

"Yeah... Thanks for saving us, back onstage." I said, trying not to blush from embarrassment at the thought of having sung in front of a crowd. I crossed my arms across my chest and looked down at the ground, the awkwardness filling me with a nervous warmth.

Barry gave me a friendly smile.

"No problem. Gotta look after our friends, right?" he said, at ease, gesturing inside the car with a thumb, "This one doesn't get drunk often, but when she does, it can get... worrisome."

I smiled and nodded, looking up at him, admiring the way he cared for his friends.

"Cisco's more or less knocked out. We gotta get them home to bed ASAP," He added, gently touching my shoulder in a brotherly manner before walking around the car to the driver's side.

"Right."

I walked over to my seat beside a dreamy-eyed, hammered Caitlin, who kept looking over at me and whispering "wow" and began asking me strange questions. I squeezed her hand and tried to give her the right answers in a gentle voice.

"How fas' you go?" she asked.

"I can... run a mile in under 6 minutes?" I offered.

"Min's? Barry do that fasser 'n secon's." She lulled.

"No, I -"

"Slow," she mumbled lazily, "Slow furra seed'ter."

"Caitlin, I don't have any seeds," I insisted gently.

"What col'r your suit?"

"What?"

"Your suit. You run wiffa suit?" She asked, closing her eyes.

"A suit? You mean like a track suit?" I tried.

"No, a running suit. Like Barry 'as,"

"Um. I just run in shorts or sweats?"

"Ignore her. She's just asking silly questions," Barry spoke up, "Doesn't know what she's saying." Barry spoke up.

Beside him, Cisco was laughing as he absent-mindedly hummed _God Only Knows,_ with his eyes closed. _  
_

"Oh. Sorry," I apologized timidly.

"It's nothing. She's out of it right now." he said. We drove the rest of the way in silence, save for Caitlin's small bursts of amazement and Cisco's dazed laughter. Barry parked the car, and we both got out. He helped Cisco out from the front, and I pulled a tipsy, barefoot Caitlin out from the back, holding her high heels in my hand.

She began protesting as I tried to support her.

"No-no-no! No runnin'! Don' run!" She begged, fear taking hold of her eyes. I gave her a small laugh as I consoled her. Barry watched us intently, Cisco leaning on him for dependence.

"I won't run away," I assuaged, pulling her to my side, "I've got you."

The look of fear didn't leave her eyes.

"Arremis, I can' walk." She mumbled, looking down at her feet, holding her hands out in front of her.

"It's okay. I can take you -"

"No walk. Don' feel good. Carry me?" she mumured in a soft voice, "P'ease?"

"I ... sure." I complied, seeing no other way to get her to move. She leaned her weight against the arm I had on her back, and my other arm under her knees, groaning as I lifted her off the ground. She was taller _and_ heavier than me, but I willed myself to use whatever strength I had, refusing to drop her and create a scene.

Barry had disappeared unnoticed again, this time with Cisco. I couldn't recall seeing him walk away. Or hear him, for that matter.

I pushed the thought away, focusing on my current dilemma. I tried not to let my knees buckle under the pressure as I slowly carried a dead-weight Caitlin to the familiar lawns that were spread out between the apartment buildings, fountain still gushing in the center. I tried to recall where she had told me she lived earlier in the morning, to no avail.

"Caitlin, sweetie. Where do you live?" I mumbled, my arms quickly running out of strength and going numb. She didn't respond. I asked her again, with the same results. It appeared she had fallen asleep with her head on my shoulder. Just my luck...

I grumbled with the weight and walked the long distance over to the elevators by building 4, hoping that it was the right place. The elevator door opened, and I entered, quickly dropping one hand from under Caitlin's legs to retrieve my keys, leaning her sleeping body against myself and allowing my free arm to relax. I held up the keys that read CS, and pushed the appropriate button on the panel. I tried to wake the sleepy Caitlin propped up beside me before the elevator opened. She didn't stir. I cursed softly as the elevator doors opened to the third floor, and I had to lift Caitlin again. I walked down the hallway until I found the door labeled 4310, and miraculously managed to unlock it after what seemed like centuries of missing the lock. I entered a dark apartment, and was about to worry about where I could place Caitlin while I tried to find the lights, when I heard a click behind me. The lights switched on, exposing an apartment larger and much nicer than my own. I turned around.

"Hey," Barry said, closing the door behind us, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. I had not seen him anywhere near the elevators. He must've taken the stairs?

"Hey yourself. Do you know where Caitlin's room is?" I asked, more worried about Caitlin than about him. Barry smiled at the two of us.

"Did you carry her the entire way here?" he asked, surprised. I tried my best to gently lay Caitlin on her couch. Barry walked over, knelt down and slowly shook her shoulder.

"Caitlin?" he asked quietly. Caitlin slowly opened her eyes, then startled herself awake.

"Oh my god. I fell asleep?" she inquired, sitting up.

"Yeah... You made Artemis carry you _all_ the way here," Barry said, admonishing her in a soft voice. She looked at me with wide, surprised eyes, then smiled.

"But iss okay. She's s'ong, like you," She murmured. Barry shook his head at her, before putting his arm around her waist and lifting her up so she was standing.

"Could you wait here for a moment?" He asked, not waiting for my response as he led her to one of the rooms, closing the door behind him. I frowned, scary thoughts flying through my head as I wondered why he'd want to be alone with a drunk woman, but he left the room again - in barely a _minute_ or so? - walking to the kitchen.

He had left the bedroom light on and the door open, and inside, I could see Caitlin in bed, wearing light blue pajamas.

She was lazily groping for the comforter that lay folded at her feet. Barry had walked over to her kitchen, and I could hear water running. I decided to go to Caitlin's room help her, and pulled the soft, thick blanket up to her arms. She smiled wearily at me.

"Thanks, Armis," she mumbled. I smiled and sat down by her feet. Barry soon entered the room, holding a glass of ice water.

"Here. You gotta drink this," he said, holding the glass gently to Caitlin's mouth.

"No more vodka," she pleaded, pushing the glass away. He carefully leaned it upwards against her mouth anyway, forcing her to drink.

"You've had _more_ than enough vodka tonight. This is water."

She drank a few gulps before pulling her head back, turning away from the glass.

"No - don't give me any of that. You've got to go to work tomorrow, and Artemis has had _quite_ the first impression of you," Barry warned gently.

Caitlin looked at us both with worried eyes, before taking the glass with shaky hands. She slowly drank some of it before handing the glass back to Barry and leaning back into her pillows. Barry placed the glass on her nightstand, beside a photo of her with a dark-haired man I didn't recognize, and pulled the blanket up to her shoulders.

"Thanks, you two," She murmured softly.

"No problem. Just... let's not get drunk again, okay?" I asked, placing an arm on her blanketed legs. Barry grabbed a folded jacket off of a chair in the room.

"Is this yours?" He asked.

"Oh - right. Yeah. Thanks," I said, taking my jacket and putting it back on. Behind us, Caitlin appeared to have already dozed off, and we turned off the lights, closing the bedroom door behind us. I sat down on Caitlin's couch, and sighed heavily. Barry handed me a fresh glass of water, and sat beside me.

"Some night, huh?" He asked with a smile. I nodded my head at him, grateful for the water.

"Did you really carry her all the way?"

"Yes, I did. Right when you left, she turned to me and began begging me to carry her, saying she can't walk... So I did," I explained, leaning my head back, relaxing my neck against the couch. Barry smiled.

"That was really kind of you. She'll be thankful for it once she wakes up," he said, looking right at me. I smiled in spite of myself.

"It's nothing. You all did so much for me today. Looking after her and Cisco was the least I could do, even if it was a bit unexpected."

Barry smiled softly in response, before looking away. He exhaled and leaned his back against the couch as well.

"Do you live nearby?" I asked.

"Mmm?"

"Do you live here at Cloverleaf as well?"

"Oh. No, I live with my stepdad," he responded.

"Oh. How will you get home? It's pretty late," I asked.

"Huh? Oh - I'll just walk. It's not far from here," Barry replied.

"Are you sure?" I asked, though I had no idea how I'd help Barry if he said no.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Come on, I'll walk you to your place on my way out," He said, getting up. I followed him out of Caitlin's apartment, and he pulled out a STAR Labs lanyard and locked the door behind us.

"You have a set of STAR Labs keys, too?" I asked, following Barry out of Caitlin's apartment to the elevator.

"Yeah - I'm an authorized guest," He said, holding up his STAR Labs name tag to show me before putting it back in his pocket. I was about to tease him about his hair in his ID photo, then decided to keep it to myself. Another question popped up in my head.

"Hey, Barry?"

"Yeah?"

"Why exactly does Dr. Wells want us to have keys to each other's places?" I asked.

"You're going to be spending a lot of time with Caitlin and Cisco at the lab," he answered, "I'm guessing it's just so you've got each others backs outside of the lab as well?"

"Huh," I asked with a playful edge to my voice, though I still found the answer to be vague, "So you mean, like, when we're wasted out of our minds and need trusted friends to bring us back home safely?"

Barry laughed.

"Precisely. Cisco's not joking when he says the lab becomes like a family," he continued.

"Nice family," I mused, "Are _your_ keys not on here because you're not a scientist at the lab?"

"Yeah. I'm the kid from across the street who comes over without an invite. And also, you know, 'cause Dr. Wells didn't arrange my housing. I've been living in Central City since I was born. Caitlin and Cisco both moved here a few years ago."

"Oh. Nice," I answered. We were back outside now, and I took a moment to ponder over his words.

Barry had lived here all of his life? Then there was definitely a chance he was the boy who had lost his mother, although I chose not to ask him now. He had a small smile on his face, and walked with his hands in his pockets. Even though I barely knew him, I felt an air of strength and security around him. No wonder Caitlin and Cisco were so fond of him.

"Caitlin sure does admire you," I remarked, recalling how she called him her hero and wished for him to be the one looking after her instead of me.

He seemed taken aback by my words.

"Oh, we're not in any type of - "

"I meant as a friend, silly. She really does seem to like you," I granted, "How did you guys meet?"

"Huh? Oh," he trailed off into thought, "Funny story actually. I was one of the people affected by the particle accelerator explosion. I got struck by lightning in my lab at the police department. The cabinet where I stored my chemicals just blew up on me, and caused me to slip into a coma."

I turned and blinked at him in shock, seeing him in a new light.

A _coma?!_

 _"Really?"_ I asked, intrigued by him as we walked around the fountain in the center of the lawns.

"Yep. Apparently the incident caused my heart rate to skyrocket, and no hospital was able to find out what went wrong. I was just blacking out their EKG's. So Dr. Wells offered to take me in, and the three of them were the ones looking after me and -"

He stopped talking abruptly, before smiling at me and continuing.

"Yeah, that's basically it. Nothing beats getting shocked by 28,000 degrees Celsius at a hundred thousand miles per hour, blacking out completely for nine months, then waking up only to be greeted by a couple of strangers and the scientist you've been worshiping all your life." **  
**

I laughed at his description.

"Well, for someone who was struck by lightning, you look _great_ ," I commented, "No burn marks or anything?"

"Nope. Woke up completely unscathed just a few months ago, though I suspect Dr. Snow had a lot to do with that," he explained with a smile, his eyes shining kindly.

"You said you were electrified by your chemicals? Were there any side effects?" I asked excitedly, wanting to know more, "Did you become a metahuman?"

"Nope," he said casually, "Even the irregular heartbeat went away. Now I'm just normal old Barry Allen."

He managed to survive getting hit by lightning, _without_ any physical side effects?!

Was this real?!

"To be honest, I felt kind of weird around you the first time we met though," I confessed.

Barry's eyes twinkled as he climbed the stairs beside me, stopping to face me.

"Guess that first impression didn't go as planned, huh?" He asked playfully.

I gently slapped his arm as he gave a light chuckle.

"No, silly," I answered, "I... felt this really strange energy coming off of you. Like you were just moving faster than me, or something. You kind of gave me a really _strong_ static shock when you shook my hand."

I immediately felt foolish for having said something so stupid-sounding. I wish I had kept my mouth shut.

"I was in a hurry to get back to work?" Barry tried.

"Um. Yeah. That must be it," I tried, "I'm sorry. I - It wasn't that big of a deal."

"Normally, I'd tease you and ask if you shared a drink with Cisco," Barry brought up with a friendly smile, "But you caught me. That's just a minor side effect of the lightning strike and whatnot. I'm still a normal guy, though."

"Getting struck by lightning, saving karaoke night, looking after your friends, walking me home - you're anything _but_ normal," I commented. We had arrived at my apartment.

"I'm sorry, did _Artemis Van Kleiss_ just tell me I was above normal? Wow," He said, pretending to be impressed with himself, "Something's clearly not right here,"

I rolled my eyes, then opened the door.

"Yes. You mistake my words. You're not above normal. You're abnormal," I teased, gesturing inside, "Would you like to come in and get something to eat or drink?"

"Nah, I had enough chips and salsa at the bar," he joked, "And we ate an entire bag of Cheesies earlier, so I think I'm fine,"

"Earlier when you broke into my apartment, you mean?"

Barry was about to protest, but didn't when he saw I was messing with him. He smiled and took a deep breath.

"Yeah. You know, I actually did have a lot of fun tonight." he mused. "You're not _too_ bad at karaoke."

"Thanks," I jested, "But yeah, I agree. Tonight was actually quite lively, even if two of us got drunk out of their minds, I was forced to sing onstage and then had to carry Caitlin home after."

Barry chuckled. I found myself enjoying his company.

"And - sorry on Cisco's behalf for him trying to... you know," he said, shrugging one shoulder. I couldn't read his facial expression in the dark night.

"Oh. Right," I remembered, laughing it off, "Nah, it's no big deal. I'll bug him about that later. He'll regret it when he's sober, right?"

Barry smiled and nodded.

"I hope so. I should go now. See you later?" He asked, before turning away. A small smile played on his lips. I found myself staring at him thoughtlessly. He raised an eyebrow at me.

"Artemis?"

"Oh - right. Yeah, alright, see you later. Bye, Mary."

###

I woke up in the morning feeling awfully enthusiastic. Today would be my first day at work.

Today, I would become a scientist at one of the greatest scientific research laboratories in the world.

I walked through the tunnel entrance of the lab practically skipping with childish joy, and was greeted with Barry whispering something to Caitlin in a serious tone at one of the computer desks. She looked alarmed by his words. Both looked up when they saw me - Barry smiling kindly, Caitlin looking away.

"'Morning, Barry," I chirped, walking over to them.

"Hey, she got my name right!" He beamed.

"Absolutely not, Perry," I responded, reaching a hand up and ruffling his hair. He shyly put his hand to his head, trying to smooth out the mess I had made. He only made it worse, which actually made it look much nicer.

"Well then..."

I dismissed him, and turned my attention to Caitlin, who was biting her lower lip as she looked through a file of papers, nervously avoiding eye contact.

"Good morning, Dr. Snow," I greeted in a low voice. I was doing my best to hide an evil smile, which wasn't working.

"Good morning, Artemis," she responded solemnly, looking away, lips taut.

"Trust you had a good night's sleep?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She gave me a quick nod before leaning in and whispering in complete seriousness, giving in to whatever was holding her back.

"Artemis, I am... _beyond_ words for my irrational behavior last night," she confessed, "I don't know what got over me, and I am _so_ unbelievably sorry for what you saw last night."

I blushed, feeling guilty for putting her on the spot.

"Actually, it's fine. You've done a lot for me this past week. Yesterday wasn't as bad as you think it was," I explained sheepishly, trying to console her.

"Really? Because I don't remember much, and Barry said I made you -" she tried to argue.

"It _wasn't_ as bad as you think it was. I'm more than glad to be able to look after you," I urged, putting my hand on top of hers, "I had fun. Really,"

"Really?" she asked skeptically.

"Really," I answered, smiling confidently at her.

"Wow, such an emotional moment between STAR Lab's scientists," Barry teased. I faced him and was about to counter him with a lighthearted comeback, but was interrupted by the sound of two people entering from one of the back rooms. Dr. Wells wheeled himself into the room, and Cisco followed beside him, whistling the song from last night. He stopped and smiled when he saw us.

"Hey, Artemis," he accosted, walking over to Caitlin's side of the table, where he laid several tools out.

"Good morning, Cisco," I greeted, over-enthusiastically, giving him a harsh glare.

"Morning, Dr. Wells," I said, in a kinder voice. Dr. Wells acknowledged me with a solemn nod before wheeling himself off to one of the other tables.

"Uh-oh," Cisco mumbled, looking slightly afraid, "If this has anything to do with last night, I promise to pay you back for whatever I broke or damaged."

"Oh, don't worry. You didn't break anything. Just promise me you won't force me to hold hands with someone, and you'll be forgiven for all else."

"I made you hold hands with someone? Who?" he asked, perplexed, "And _how?"_

"Me. You literally just took our hands and continued to smash them together until they met in a handhold," Barry scolded gently.

Cisco raised an eyebrow, and looked back and forth between me and Barry.

"Why didn't you guys just stop me?" he asked, as if it was obvious.

"Oh geez. That's such a brilliant idea. I totally should have tried that, except for the fact that you sort of started _crying_ whenever I pulled my hand away," I explained sarcastically.

Cisco froze and took a look back at me. A smile played on his lips and he crossed his arms.

"So... I got you two to hold hands?" he smirked.

"Yes?" Barry replied, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

"You're saying that like it's a bad thing," Cisco responded coolly.

"What? _It is_! It's totally not cool to _just_ force two unwilling people to flipping hold hands because we're bad flirts," I flared, keeping my voice down so Dr. Wells, who was typing on a computer at the other desk, couldn't hear.

"Well maybe if you two were _good_ flirts, I wouldn't have had to step in and help you along," he remarked nonchalantly in a small voice.

I felt my cheeks grow red.

"Cisco, we weren't flirting," I protested, trying to keep my voice even. I heard Caitlin stifle back a laugh in her lab.

"You're blushing."

"Of course I'm blushing. You're putting me on the spot," I declared, not wanting to lose my cool. I turned to Barry, who was taking it much more calmly than I was, "Help me out, would you?"

Barry seemed shocked by my sudden request, then regained his composure.

"Oh, right - yeah. Just - just _don't_. Leave us alone, or, something," Barry attempted.

"Leave us alone? That's the best you can do?" I asked in disbelief, "He's making fun of us despite the fact that we're the ones responsible for him getting home safely - _you're_ the one responsible, actually - and the most you can come up with is 'leave us alone'?"

"Maybe you two _do_ need to be left alone," Cisco taunted, a playful edge to his voice, "Some privacy, perhaps? So you two could go and perfect your flirting?"

I widened my eyes at him.

"Cisco, I literally just met him last Thursday."

"That doesn't matter to _him_. The guy's heads over heels for you already," he asserted, lifting his chin up in confidence. Cue Barry's turn to redden.

"What?! Dude, what are you -" Barry attempted.

"Bruh, I can't even get his name right. Are you out of your puny little mind?" I interrupted.

"She - she can't even get my name right. Come on!" Barry repeated, steadying his voice.

"But you find it cute," Cisco noted, tilting his head. Barry opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, shaking his head with disapproval at his friend.

"He's doing this on purpose just to get under our skin. Don't give it a second thought," Barry pointed out. He checked the time on his watch, "Ahh, gotta run. Joe's waiting for me."

"Alright, be safe," Cisco said to his friend.

"Bye, Dr. Wells. See ya, Caitlin," he said, slipping his brown coat over his gray sweater. He turned to me and was about to bid me farewell, before I interrupted him.

"Your tie is kinda crooked," I stated. He reached his hand up to his collar under his sweater, feeling his tie. He fixed it, then addressed me.

"Better?" he asked, adjusting the collar of his shirt.

"Mhmm," I responded awkwardly, knowing very well that everyone in the lab, maybe Dr. Wells, was watching us now.

"Aight. See ya, Artemis," he said before leaving. I nodded my head in greeting, and Barry disappeared down the entrance hallway. Cisco was watching me with disbelieving eyes.

"You know what you _should_ have done?" he murmured.

"What?"

"Gone up to him and fixed his tie yourself. Guys love that stuff," Cisco advised coolly.

I pursed my bottom lip and leaned my head to one side, eyeing him malevolently.

"Oh, I am going to have _so_ much fun with this," he concluded, focusing his attention back to the pieces of metal lain across the table. I grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him in front of me, so his face was looking directly at mine, startling him.

"I ripped the skin off of a kid's face once," I told him in an easygoing voice, adding a smile for effect, "Poor guy needed 26 stitches. My foster parents weren't too happy about paying the bill."

Cisco looked at me with a fresh, new-found fear.

"I like you, Cisco. And I like Barry too. You're both good people. And so far, I'm a good person in your eyes too," I added, "Let's... _not_ change any of that, okay?"

Cisco drew his mouth tight and gave a small nod, before I released him.

"Feisty. I like it," he pronounced.

I rolled my eyes and dismissed him.

"Ms. Van Kleiss?" a voice behind me asked. I turned to see Dr. Wells waiting in his wheelchair, one hand at his mouth, watching, "As entertained as I am by your interactions, we've actually got work to do today."

I stood up straight, and nodded.

"Cisco, have you shown her around yet?"

"Umm. No..."

The look in Dr. Wells' eyes grew slightly annoyed, though he hid it well.

"See to it, then,"

Cisco put his tools down, then gestured for me to follow him.

"Alright, well this whole wing is basically the Cortex. Caitlin's got the medical wing under her control,"

"In case anything happens!" Caitlin called out.

"Which ... usually doesn't!" Cisco agreed.

"There's also the medical labs, where she does her bioengineering/geneticist magic. I'm pretty sure Wells hired you to work as a bridge between us, since you've got expertise in both of our fields and could totally revamp our work,"

Who's to say I wasn't here to take over their work? I thought in a playful, snarky voice.

"Yep. I'm a jack of all trades," I agreed. Cisco walked me through some halls, pointing out various labs and whatnot. We passed by a door which he ignored.

"Wait - you forgot about this one," I pointed out, stepping back and turning the handle.

"That's - nothing in there!" Cisco said, stopping me and pulling my hand back.

"What?" I looked confused.

"That's the shadowy place. You must never go in there, Simba. Old running joke about that room being haunted," he assured.

"Cisco, I'm not afraid of ghosts," I stated, although that was a lie, "Can't I just see what's in there?"

"No need. It's just a room full of senseless junk," he indicated.

"Then why aren't we using it as a lab or a testing space?" I asked, "Or storage?"

"Huh. Good idea. I'll confer about that with Dr. Wells later," he stated.

I couldn't shake the feeling they didn't want me in here. No, maybe I'm just being tense. These are decent people, I reminded myself. They won't keep secrets. Cisco led me over to an elevator. I followed him inside and he pressed the second button. The elevator _ding_ ed and we stood there in awkward silence before he spoke up.

"So ... you're not actually going to kill me, right?" he pried.

"I'll try not to, but if you insist, then I'll have no choice," I answered plainly, smiling so he knew I was joking.

"Did you seriously give that kid stitches?"

"No. The doctor gave him stitches. _I_ shoved his face into tanbark," I recalled, remembering how gruesomely I had ripped the boy's sorry little face.

"Damnnnn," he murmured with an impressed smile. The door opened up, and I followed him outside into a small hallway.

"Cisco - please. He was not the only one," I announced. Cisco led me through a hallway lined with closets.

"What - did you beat up his friends too?" he asked with an anxious laugh.

"No. They probably ran away. I was a pretty violent kid..."

"Really now?" he questioned, looking surprised.

"Yup. I was terrible."

"Yeah, I read your police reports, actually," He said, looking over at me with an impressed smile, "You've cleaned up nicely,"

"Oh?"

"17 accounts of minor felonies in two years? Then going on to graduate as both college and high school valedictorian? Come on..." he joked, stopping at a large double-door. He opened it with the STAR Labs key, unlocking a room lined with blue walls, roughly the same size as a warehouse.

"This here's our basement," he said with a smile, "It's where all the fun stuff happens."

"Like what?" I asked, walking inside.

"Tests,"

"For?"

"STAR Labs stuff,"

"Such _as?_ " I asked, annoyed by his ambiguity.

"We test out weapons we make here. Ways to stop metahumans, particle runs, that ish. We can't do a lot of the good stuff anymore because the city's labelled us a class four hazardous location because of the particle accelerator blowing out, but we still have our moments."

"What?" I asked. I knew the lab was in poor condition because of the explosion that happened, but I had assumed it was more or less still thriving, "You're not able to conduct major experiments anymore?"

"No. We lost a lot of money to lawsuits and whatnot too. We had to file for bankruptcy. We're not what we used to be anymore."

"Bankruptcy? But Harrison Wells is supporting us ... really well," I stated, remembering my starting six figure salary.

"He's pretty financially sound. He was pretty famous before the accident, but now, people tend to see him as a martyr," Cisco explained sadly, "He's just working with what he had made before,"

"Oh..." I felt sorry for Harrison Wells. In my eyes, though, he was still a respectable genius, even if the public didn't think so.

Cisco showed me the closets we had passed on our way in, most of them used for storage, supplies and old parts. We passed windows overlooking a huge, dark open area several stories below us, surrounded by metal panels for walls.

"That's the particle accelerator. Wanna check it out?" Cisco asked.

I turned to him in surprise.

"We can go down there?"

"Uhh, _yeah_ ," he said, as if it was obvious, "Come on," he urged, smiling.

We walked back to the elevator, my heart beginning to race a little. I had _severe_ admiration for the particle accelerator and Harrison Well's work on converting black energy into something sustainable. I had studied his particle theory for years, in awe of his discoveries and findings.

Now, I'd be able to go see them myself. I wanted to giggle like a small child.

The elevator opened, and Cisco led me through some rooms into the openings we had seen from the basement. It seemed more or less like an underground racetrack, circling around what must have been the entire laboratory above ground, with wide, metal panels for walls.

We must have been at least ten stories underground, I realized, looking up.

Underground. That's the _perfect_ place to execute work such as this, I realized, although up ahead I noticed an area that seemed different from the rest. It had been repaired, I perceived, and the roof above it had been as well.

"That's where the blast happened," Cisco explained dismally.

"Oh..." I turned and looked at him. He had a wistful look on his face, as if he was recalling the memory, how everything happened. He looked up at me and the expression melted, replaced with his usual, chill smile.

"Wanna see the metahuman prison?" he asked.

"Oh my god - can I?"

"Heck yes!" He said, and he led me back inside the building, past a control room, and into what appeared to be the core of the accelerator - adorned with brightly-lit orange and blue panels. Cisco walked over to an energy chamber - a small cell lined with metal, one side open, facing us.

"Those are the core particle chambers. Since the metahumans started attacking, we've been using the chambers to lock them up in here. They're inescapable."

" _Inescapable_?" I asked, challenging his words with a small smile.

An wicked smile appeared on Cisco's face. He held one arm out towards the chamber.

"See for yourself," he offered.

I raised an eyebrow at him and walked into the chamber. Cisco worked through a panel, and a clear door shut behind me. I turned and knocked on it. The material was something much stronger and denser than glass. I felt the walls. This wasn't any ordinary metal. This cell was radiating an unfathomable amount of energy, putting intense pressure on my own energy levels. Even _without_ the walls holding me in, I was trapped ability-wise.

"What are these made of?" I asked through the clear door, facing Cisco.

"Palladium-based glass. Each cell is reinforced with an 8.3 tesla super conducting magnet on the barriers, walls, floors and roofs."

" _8.3_?" I asked in awe.

Cisco smiled and nodded.

"That's almost a hundred times stronger than the force of Earth's own magnetic field!" I declared, amazed by the cell around me.

 _"Cisco, why on Earth is Artemis locked up in the pipeline?"_ Dr. Wells demanded over an intercom.

"Sorry! I was showing her the particle chambers!" he yelled at nothing in particular.

"They can _hear_ us?" I whispered with my face against the clear doors, even more surprised. Cisco chuckled.

"There's cameras in every corner of the lab, Artemis. An alarm in the Cortex must have gone off, signifying activity in the pipeline," he described, working the chamber's control panel outside the cell.

The clear door split in half horizontally, both halves zooming up and down to let me out. I exited.

"This place is _seriously_ awesome." I said in a low, but thrilled, voice. Cisco laughed and clasped me on the shoulder.

"Trust me, it's even more exciting working here. Let's go back up to the Cortex so I can show Dr. Wells you didn't die."

I scoffed at him teasingly and we went back up to the Cortex, where Dr. Wells was discussing something with Caitlin in the medical labs.

"This clearly is very strange. I never thought I'd see Bar-"

"Dr. Wells?" Cisco announced, "We're back?"

"Good to hear. Have Artemis help you with your current project. I need to discuss something urgent with Dr. Snow. Caitlin, may we review your results more privately, please? In my office?"

"Sure," Caitlin piped, and the two of them headed over to Dr. Wells' office, Caitlin holding several sets of files. Cisco and I watched them shut the door behind them, before he nodded at me and I followed him over to the desk where he had been working earlier.

"So - there's a new meta in town," he deliberated, pulling up images on the computer. "Name's Rajeet. He's a former performer for the Central City Circus, before it shut down. Sources and security cameras have picked up images of him appearing to have telekinetic abilities."

Cisco played security footage of a frail Indian man wearing a shendyt - an Egyptian-style male skirt - knocking security guards out by having their bodies thrown against walls, and out of windows.

"I've never heard of him before," I said in a small voice. Cisco cringed.

"You must not be keeping up with the news, then..."

I nodded my head no. Cisco played news reports telling horrifying stories of a skinny man seen around town, able to lift people and objects telekinetically. I turned to Cisco.

"All of his powers seem to come from his mind. We just need to build something to knock him out, or atleast frazzle his brain waves."

Cisco got up and went into Caitlin's lab, returning with files.

"Caitlin's been doing some research on cranial electrostimulation. This is all we've got so far," he said, laying the files out onto the table. I flipped through a few of them.

"Electric signatures," I noted.

"What?"

"Electric signatures. A body cannot function without electric signals running through it, and the brain is the electric powerhouse. This guy clearly has brain waves that are far too powerful for us to control them from the outside," I said, playing one of the videos of Rajeet terrorizing a jewelry store.

"No physical attack can get to him if he sees it coming. This is why your police forces haven't been able to stop him. But once you distract him, or launch a surprise attack -" I paused and worked out some math, "You'd have to hit him with electric brain waves that will cancel out his own, and wipe him out."

"So you're saying we should -"

"Create something that will shoot him with replicated brain waves, ultimately confusing his primary motor cortex, which will disable him, and hopefully his occipital lobes as well. Those are used to register images received from the optic nerve. Or you could just somehow try to blind him - that'd be a lot easier on our part. But confusing his brain would be the safest bet if you couldn't reach him, or if he somehow saw you first," I analyzed.

Cisco had been listening to me intently, chewing on a pen.

"How on earth did you figure _that_ out?" he muttered in perplexity.

"What do you mean?" I asked, drawing up calculations on a sheet of paper.

"Caitlin and I have been stumped by this guy for a week or so now... You... actually came up with something sensible," he stated, still astonished.

I shrugged, and Cisco and I began designing a weapon that would do as we had planned, discussing measurements, computing the right calculations, working out the functionality, making small talk. We commenced the actual building of the machine, myself having worked out the proper physics that could artificially recreate brain waves.

"Yo Cisco," I called, soldering together the circuit we formulated would work best to run the electric charge.

"Hmm?" he responded, working on another mechanical aspect in the other side of the room.

"I've heard some shady stuff about this place..."

Cisco stopped working and flipped his welding mask up.

"Like what?" he asked, concern on his face.

"Andrew Thompson told me STAR Labs captures metahumans, and that they're never seen again after they've been caught."

"Andrew _Thompson_?"

"Yeah, the smokey ghost kid," I answered, "He was seen last week, remember?"

" _Seen?_ He was about to cause an entire city block to die from suffocation."

"Which was beyond his control."

Cisco sighed at me, and put his welder down, crossing his arms over his chest. He had done an apt job of chastising me over the phone for not staying inside like he had told me to and instead coming in harm's way, where he said I could've died. He had become extremely worried for me once he found out Thompson had used me as his hostage.

"No. That's wrong. We're not bounty hunters, or anything. We just try to keep the city safe," he asserted.

"What do you do with the metas down in the pipeline?" I asked, intrigued by the situation. Cisco scratched the back of his head.

"Nothing, really. We just leave them there."

"You're not trying to, you know, restore them back to their normal selves? Take away their abilities? Make them human again?"

Cisco scowled at the ground in thought, before answering me.

"Artemis, as far as we know from our research, the particle accelerator explosion has genetically and permanently mutated their DNA, giving them the metahuman gene. It's not something we'd be able to change. We'd have to genetically realter them again," he stated, "In a sense, we'd have to reverse engineer the explosion, and create it again."

"What about for just an individual? Can't you just study one of your metas and then figure out how to create a synthetic genetic structure to replace their metahuman one?"

"I've never really thought of that, before. We don't really focus on that part. We just design the tech needed to bring them down. But you should definitely bring that up with Dr. Wells?"

"Along with the haunted room?" I asked, teasing him.

Cisco smiled and took a deep breath.

"Go for it. He'll probably say the same thing. That room just... isn't for us."

I decided not to push Cisco for more answers, and we continued working on the task at hand for the next few hours.

"Oh, by the way -" he announced, turning back and giving me an ear-to-ear smile.

"Yeah?"

"That was a _dope_ nickname you came up with."

"What was a dope nickname?"

"The name you came up for Thompson - Smoke Ghost? That is seriously sick," he beamed. I smiled back at him.

"We give metahumans nicknames?"

"Heck yes! We've got a full archive running, dude. I'll show it to you later - it's pretty epic, if I do say so myself."

"Why the heck not? I'd love to check it out later."

"Yeah... Smoke Ghost... We learn something new about you everyday, don't we?"

"We do what?"

"First we found out you're a Van Kleiss, then we learn you hate listening to others. Yesterday we learned that you hate letting other people help you and that you're a nonalcoholic who can improvise singing like a pro. Today we learn you're ruthless at putting others down, whether its childhood bullies, creepy telekinetic psychos or even just me with my senseless teasing, and _now_ we find out you're good with nicknames."

"Oh please. And besides, is coming up with nicknames really that hard? I literally just call Barry anything that ends in -arry."

Cisco was about to say something when the door to Dr. Wells' office opened. He emerged in his wheelchair followed by a worried Caitlin, who was clutching the files closely.

"Dr. Wells! Look what Artemis came up with!" Cisco blazoned, running back to the table in the Cortex and picking up the papers we were working on. He handed them off to our leader, smiling widely. Dr. Wells read through the calculations and the sketches. His eyebrows knit themselves together, though I wasn't sure if it was from intrigue or disappointment.

"Synthetic brain waves to cancel and nullify his own - this is incredible," Wells mused.

"Let me see," Caitlin asked, holding her hand out to Dr. Wells. Wells passed the papers onto her. Caitlin flipped through them.

"How did you come up this? How did we miss this - we've been trying to figure out a way to bring him down for days now!" Caitlin said, astounded, "Paralyzing his primary lobes - Artemis, this is genius! This - this will minimize surrounding damage without anyone getting hurt!"

"Everyone save for Rajeet, that is," I said with a small laugh. I felt as if I was glowing on the inside. This was literally such easy work, and my teammates were impressed.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, this - this is why you were hired. You're going to bring this lab back to its former glory. I know it," Dr. Wells stated with an actual smile.

"Have you guys had lunch?" he asked. Cisco and I both shook our heads no.

"Long day working, huh? It's almost time for you to go home. I wouldn't mind letting you off early today," Wells offered in a kind voice.

"Oh, no. It's fine. Cisco and I are almost done building the machine, anyway." I said, signaling towards the large gun-like device on the worktable.

"You built that wearing _that_?" Caitlin demanded in a surprised manner, signing towards my blouse and dress pants, now smudged with small grease stains. I shrugged.

"I didn't really have any other option?" I admitted. Caitlin frowned and turned to Cisco.

"You didn't give her her lab coat?" she asked in shock.

"Sorry - I kind of -"

"Cisco, not everyone dresses like they're going to go play in the dirt. Please," She said, kind of annoyed. She went into her lab and returned holding a lab coat.

"This is yours. I don't need to remind you of lab safety, do I?"

"No, ma'am." I answered, putting the coat on.

"Well, if you wish to finish your work, I won't stop you. I'll be in my office if I'm needed - I've got a few phone calls to make," Dr. Wells proclaimed before wheeling himself back into the room.

"Financial stuff?" Cisco asked. Caitlin nodded her head reluctantly. She sighed and took her files back to her lab. The three of us worked in silence for the rest of the day, until Cisco and I finally finished building the gun.

"Dude, this looks so sick!" he cheered, proud of the apparatus lying polished on the table. He held it up, and aimed it.

"What are we going to call it?" I asked. Cisco pulled the trigger on the device, which was about as big as his entire arm. A large shock of purple lightning left the muzzle, travelling halfway across the Cortex, the blow pushing Cisco back.

"Oh god - that was awesome!" he moaned on the ground. I helped him up.

"That'll definitely do the trick," he said, dusting the knees of his jeans off.

"Don't fry one of the computers!" Caitlin called out behind her lab window.

"This thing can't fry anything other than a human brain," I told her, "So just keep it pointed down at the ground please."

Cisco placed it back down on the table, then groaned as he stretched his arms.

"We'll call it the Shocker. Let's run tests on it tomorrow in the basement. I wanna go now - I'm starving," he replied, yawning.

"Agreed," I said, and the two of us were about to leave through the entrance tunnel when Caitlin called out to us.

"Did one of you guys leave your keys?" she asked, walking over to one of the tables in the Cortex.

"No," I answered, as Cisco and I pulled lanyards out of our pockets.

"Oh - nevermind, these are Barry's. He must've forgotten them here when he came to visit in the morning," she stated.

"I can give them to him. I'm walking home anyway. The police station is right up along the way," I said, walking up to her and taking the keys from her.

"You sure?" Cisco asked, "I could do it."

"It's fine," I said, turning back towards the entrance, "Bye, Caitlin. See you tomorrow. Give Dr. Wells my regards."

"Sure thing. See you later, Artemis," Caitlin said, smiling warmly. Cisco and I walked out to the lab's parking lot, where we both said goodbye before parting ways - me going back home, him somewhere to eat.

My first day at work had gone rather well. I looked forward to testing the Shocker the next day.


	6. Operation Fourth Wheel

The walk to the police station was much quicker than I thought, and I took an elevator up to the CCPD lobby, entering an elegant office-style area with gold marble floors. To my right was a huge Greek carving, engraved with a set of seven deities standing above the words **_"Truth - Liberty - Justice"_** with a bald eagle in the background. Several cops and staff members were milling around. I approached an officer who was overlooking files with a receptionist.

"Excuse me - sorry to disturb you, but would you happen to know where I can find Mr. Barry Allen?" I asked politely.

"The, uhh, CSI kid?" the cop asked.

"Yes."

"Does he have an appointment with you?" the middle-aged receptionist queried, craning her neck to look at me.

"No. He forgot his keys at STAR Labs. I just thought I'd return them to him?"

The receptionist studied me uncannily for a minute, before speaking up.

"He's upstairs at the forensics lab. And give these to him too while you're there, would ya?" she snapped, handing me a fat packet of mail labelled for _Mr. Bartholomew Henry Allen_.

 _Bartholomew_ Allen?

Oh, this was _gold._

The officer smiled and pointed me to a set of stairs by the side of the building. I thanked them both and left.

The stairway led me to a huge room with even huger windows overlooking the city below. It was more of a small hall than a room, I realized, seeing how the long room was filled with long tables and counters, each littered with papers and lab tools. Near the right was a map of the city hung upon a board. To the left were various cabinets, and counters against the windows contained sinks and bunsen burners and whatnot. Barry was seated at one of the tables in lab coat, holding his cell phone against his shoulder as he mixed liquids in a beaker with gloved hands.

"You locked her up in the _what?_ " he asked with a disbelieving laugh, speaking into his phone. The voice on the other end spoke for a few moments before Barry responded.

"Synthetic brain waves? Huh..." he said in an amused voice. I realized he must be talking to Cisco. Barry finally took notice of me waiting in his doorway and smiled at me. I waved back at him and held up his mail and keys.

"Speak of the devil and she appears. Cisco, I gotta go... No, seriously. She's _here_... Alright. _Bye."_

Barry hung up and gestured for me to enter.

"Special delivery for a Mr. _Bartholomew_ Henry Allen?" I announced sarcastically, walking over to Barry and handing him his mail.

Barry gave me an embarrassed, guilty smile as he sifted through the envelopes.

"Well, _Bartholomew,_ nice setup you've got going on here," I commented, taking a look around. Truth be told, his lab was a bit shabby and cluttered, but I didn't mind. I rested my arms comfortably on the tabletop.

"Thanks. I slice open corpses at this table, just to let you know," he admitted with a nonchalant grin. My stomach took a small turn as images of rotten bodies flashed through my head, but I forced myself to swallow my fear and continue talking to Barry.

"You work as a coroner too?" I asked curiously. Barry smiled and took his finished chemicals over to the counter by the window.

"Kind of? I mostly stick to forensics and CSI, but obviously I do some coroner work too if its ever necessary," he explained, turning away to wash the chemicals out.

"Nice. The cops downstairs call you the 'CSI kid'," I mused.

Barry gave a light laugh.

"Yeah... I'll always be Baby-faced Barry to them, no matter how old I get." He removed his gloves and lab coat, and walked back over to the table and sat across from me.

"Ouch... I can relate," I replied, "It's really no fun being the youngest _and_ shortest person in the room."

Barry gave me an easy smile.

" _So._... how was your first day at STAR Labs?"

A smile broke out on my face and I eagerly began babbling.

"Dude - you would _not_ believe how spectacular it is! Cisco gave me a tour of the lab and showed me the particle accelerator, and he even locked me up in the pipeline, which was actually really _really_ cool, and then we worked together to figure out how to stop this creepy guy named Rajeet and we built this super cool gun called the Shocker, and we're gonna test it tomorrow and I am _so_ stoked about it!"

Barry's eyes twinkled as he chuckled at my reaction.

"Yeah, that's more or less what Cisco was telling me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, although he's convinced you have a hidden talent for coming up with nicknames for people," Barry idled, leaning back in his chair.

"Well, he's absolutely right about _that_ , Terry."

"It's Bartholomew," Barry corrected jokingly. I rolled my eyes and smiled at him.

"How long have you been a forensic scientist?" I asked, though I only did so in order to try and figure out Barry's age. He was definitely a few years older than me - I just couldn't discern by how much.

"Somewhere between two and three years?" he answered. So around 24 or 25 years? Assuming he began working right after college?

"Huh. Nice," I acknowledged, "You must have quite the stomach for being able to comb through murder scenes for that long. What made you want to go into CSI in the first place?"

"Uhhmmm," he stammered uncomfortably, "Well, it's a long story. When I was eleven years old, my fath-"

"Hey, Allen!" the raspy-voiced receptionist called out from the doorway, eyeing us both with hateful eyes, "Detective Joe wants to see you."

"Oh - alright. Thanks, Lake. I'll be down there in a second."

Lake gave us a nasty stare before returning downstairs.

"Who spit in her cereal?" I murmured.

Barry gave a disapproving but entertained smile before indicating for me to follow him downstairs.

"Come on - I'll introduce you to my stepfather."

Downstairs in the lobby, a group of officers that included Eddie, a bearded African American man, and two other officers was waiting for us. Barry hurried down over to them, and I followed behind him.

"Hey Joe - what's up?" he asked.

"Bear, we gotta run. There's been another case," the African American man said. The two accompanying officers locked guns into their belts and left.

"What is it this time?"

"We can't tell, but there have been reports of suspicious activity. Evidence points to a metahuman attack," Eddie described, involuntarily looking over at me when he said the word _metahuman_.

He solemnly nodded his head at me in greeting. I acknowledged him the same way. Joe noticed our interaction.

"Who's your friend?" Joe asked, holding his hand out to me for a handshake.

"Oh - this is Artemis. The new engineer at STAR Labs I was telling you about?" Barry explained, stepping aside to introduce me. I stepped forward and shook Joe's hand.

"Pleasure to meet you, sir," I stated, smiling courteously.

"Detective Joseph West. Iris and Barry were telling me about you," he said, with a stern look in his eyes.

I got immediately got the feeling that he didn't like me, and a tiny gulp worked its way down my throat.

" _Eddie_ also told me about you," Joe continued, raising an eyebrow.

Even though I had done no wrong, I suddenly felt nervous and guilty. Eddie's eyes shown at me pitifully. Barry looked confused.

"I - sir, I didn't mean to offend the police or anything. I just -"

"Is something wrong?" Barry asked, perplexed. Eddie immediately shook his head no.

"Joe, I told you it wasn't a big deal. Let's go," Eddie stated coolly.

Barry's eyes immediately shot to Eddie, and gave him an almost cold glare.

There's tension between these two, I realized, recalling that Eddie was dating Iris, whom Barry had a crush on. Joe was still eyeing me sternly.

"STAR Labs is on good relations with the police, Ms. Van Kleiss," Joe explained, "What happened last week may have been a special situation, but you're not here to feel sorry for murderers."

"Yeah, that's what Arkham's for," Eddie said with a small laugh.

Joe and Barry turned and gave him unamused looks.

"Whatever. We need to go," Eddie announced, and he walked out with Joe to the elevator. Barry followed behind them, but turned and gave an exaggerated look between me and the two officers, clearly demanding some answers. I gave him a reluctant smile and gestured that I'd tell him later, and watched them leave.

"Can I help you?" an annoyed female voice demanded. It was Lake, perched at her receptionist's desk, stuffing her face with chocolate, the hateful look still burning in her eyes.

"Nope!" I replied, and left the building.

###

The next morning, I awoke early and decided to go head out to the Cloverleaf Recreational Gym and check it out before going to work. I found the gym mostly empty, save for a lonely man on the other side running a treadmill. I found a pair of boxing gloves and was wacking away to my heart's content at a punching bag, when the door to the entrance opened and a surprised voice called out my name.

"Artemis?" Cisco asked, bewildered to see me. I had a similar reaction. Barry entered behind Cisco, both dressed in shorts and STAR Labs t-shirts, Cisco with a headband under his long hair.

"Um. Hey?" I replied, lowering my gloved fists.

"What are you doing here this early?" he inquired, setting a gym bag down on the ground.

"Hunting for elephants? You?"

"Pretty much the same thing," Cisco responded, cracking a grin.

"Morning, Artemis," Barry acknowledged, turning towards a wide set of stairs, "I'll be upstairs."

Cisco faced me with a wily smile, and the two of us messed around with the boxing gloves for a while.

"Why is Barry here? He doesn't live at Cloverleaf," I asked during our water break.

"No, he doesn't, but I sneak him in anyway," Cisco answered, getting up.

"Is there a track somewhere around here?" I asked, "I wanna go for a run, but treadmills aren't my thing."

"Sure. There's one upstairs. I was going up there myself," Cisco explained. We silently gathered our things and went upstairs, where we found Barry stretching his arms by a set of weights.

"Harmless warmup?" Cisco asked, arching an eyebrow at his friend. Barry nodded. I knelt down to tighten the laces on my beat-up sneakers.

"You, uhh, you going for a run?" Barry asked, furrowing his eyebrows. I nodded my head at him.

"Mind if I join you for a little footrace?" he questioned, a small smile playing on his face. Cisco looked over at us with concern.

"I don't see why not?" I retorted, walking over to the huge synthetic asphalt track ahead of us, "Though I'm warning you - don't cry if you lose."

"Why? What are you, an Olympic gold medalist or something?" Barry asked jokingly.

"Maybe..."

"Well, don't be too impressed if _I_ happen to beat you," he said with a coy flair to his voice. I arched an eyebrow at him, and we both turned to face the synthetic asphalt track ahead of us, "On your mark, Van Kleiss..."

He wouldn't beat me. I wouldn't let him, though I was enjoying the challenge he was offering. I leaned forward, ready to run, and began counting.

"Alright. Three... two...one," and we were off.

Now, any runner knows that the key to running fast lies in several aspects of the runner's form, which includes keeping your upper body tall and loose, using the momentum in your arms, and balancing your strides with your own energy. Barry and I both started off at a quick, steady pace, but as we ran the turn in the track, he sped up, passing me. I allowed him, focusing on keeping my own strides even, and soon, I managed to pass him. I continued running and glowed a little at my small victory, and was about to complete my lap when I realized I couldn't hear Barry's footsteps anymore. I allowed myself to turn around and my eyes nearly popped out of my sockets at what I saw.

Barry was at least 100 meters behind me.

And his running form was undeniably sloppy.

For one, he seemed far more hunched over than necessary, and his arms were loosely flying around at his sides. His strides were terribly unbalanced, and despite all of his physical efforts, he was moving incredibly slowly. I finished the last few meters, and stopped and gawked at him, in awe of how stupid he looked. He soon wobbled his way over to me, and was taking big slow breaths.

"What the hell _was_ that?" I asked in stupefaction. Barry sat down exhausted and ran a hand through his hair. He had run like a frightened duck, and that too, like a slow duck. He didn't sweat a drop. What did he have to be tired about? I sat down beside him, probably scowling at him.

"I went easy on you," he conceded, faking exhaustion.

"Went easy? That's the worst running I have ever seen in my life!" I declared, incredibly disappointed. Cisco was covering up laughter with his mouth at the edge of the track, giggling hysterically. He joined us at the starting line.

"The worst running you've ever seen?" Barry murmured, turning sad, "That's a little harsh..."

"I'm sorry, but I had higher expectations for you," I affirmed, still angry at him for his poor performance.

"Here - why don't we go again? I'll count you guys down," Cisco offered. I nodded my head and pulled Barry Allen to his feet with both hands.

"This time, give me some _real_ competition, please," I asked coldly. Barry gave me a pitiful look, and we both turned toward the track once again.

"On your marks... Get set... Go!" Cisco announced. And Barry and I were off again. For at least half of the track, Barry kept up with me. Good, I thought. At least now it's not an easy win. Now, he's using his full potential. But just as soon as I thought Barry would pass me, he slowed down almost completely, again, in that foolish, wobbly form of his. His steps became extremely short, and for some reason, he gave me a nutty smile and tilted his chin up, as if that would help him. I stopped short and turned around, dropping my arms to my sides in frustration.

"What the _actual_ hell?" I shouted to him, and grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt to stop him as he tried to pass me. He gave me a confused expression.

"What? I'm running!" he protested. I dropped his sleeve and crossed my arms across my chest, not hiding my letdown.

"No. You were _not_ running. You were a disappointment, that's what you were," I stated severely. Offended, Barry placed a hand at his side, looking down at me.

"Well, jeez, no need to be so rude about it, Ms. World Champion," he glowered. I threw my arms up in shock.

"Are you kidding me? Someone of your size and physique should be able to run a _lot_ better than that!" I cried out, "You _should've_ beaten me! Cisco - shouldn't Barry have beaten me?"

Cisco's face was red from uncontrolled laughter - though what he found funny, I could never guess.

"Well, I don't know," he admitted, giggling as he walked over, failing in his attempt to stifle a smile, "Seems like Barry here just couldn't reach his full potential today,"

Cisco hooked an elbow over Barry's shoulder, though Barry was much taller than him, and Barry gave him a pointed grin, like the comment was an inside joke of theirs.

"Guess you had an easy win today, Artemis," Barry admitted reluctantly. I frowned at them both.

"I hate easy wins. Step up your running game, Allen," I ordered, picking up my water bottle on my way to the stairs, "See you both later."

"Bye, Artemis." Barry called out.

"Yeah, see ya at work, Speedy Van Kleiss," Cisco remarked.

" _Don't_ call me that," I demanded, turning around to roughly ruffle Cisco's hair. He tried to object, but by the time I pulled my hand away, his hair was a wild mess and he wore a goofy grin.

After showering at home and changing into fresh clothes, I headed over to STAR Labs early, where Dr. Snow had already started setting up.

"Morning, Artemis," she greeted kindly, holding up a paper bag with the Jitters' logo on it, "Extra breakfast?"

I thanked her and took the bag from her, sitting beside her as I stuffed my face with the mini bagel bites she brought. She smiled and tapped her finger against her bottom lip.

"So... I hear you had an interesting morning at the gym...," she remarked. I was taken aback, and set the bag down.

"Barry Allen couldn't run to save his life!" I professed. Caitlin seemed entertained by my words.

"Really now?" she asked with a small chuckle, organizing the papers in front of her into separate stacks.

"Yes! Caitlin, he runs like a bipedal turtle!"

Caitlin laughed at my words a little too hard, turning a bit red in the face, as if she couldn't believe what I just said. Footsteps could be heard in the entrance tunnel, and Barry and Cisco entered, both cleaned up from our morning workout.

"A bipedal turtle?" Barry asked in disbelief. Cisco nodded at Caitlin and stole a couple of bagel bites from my bag before retrieving the Shocker from one of the lab rooms.

"Woahhh... What is that?" Barry asked, turning his attention to the large gun in Cisco's hands. It's been painted silver and purple. Cisco must've done that on his own time.

"STAR Labs' newest toy, ideas courtesy of Artemis. I told you about this yesterday, remember?" He balled up his fist and wiped away at a smudge near the muzzle, "We'll be using this to stop Rajeet, our latest metahuman criminal."

"But first, we gotta test it out," I reminded him, dusting off my hands and slipping on my lab coat. I took the gun from him and double checked the electricity-inducing battery we created.

"Barry, check this out," I called, inviting him over to my side so I can show him our masterpiece. He made his way around the table and is beside me, peering at the device in my hands. I pointed out various parts of the gun.

"You know how tesla coils work, right? This gun works the same way, except it generates artificial brain waves instead of regular high-voltage electricity."

"Wow... Wait, so how did you manage to control and cut down the electric power?" He asked, genuinely intrigued. I couldn't help but feel relaxed in how close he was standing to me.

"Classical electrodynamics. We're using solenoid magnets as batteries so we can manipulate the electric and magnetic fields emitted by the gun," I explained, smiling proudly, "So not only can the gun operate at the same electric charge it runs on, but it can also reverse and nullify any other opposing waves, which will render our metahuman powerless,"

Barry looked away from the gun and focused his attention onto me. He raised his eyebrows.

"That's actually pretty smart," he said with an impressed smile.

"Cisco, how exactly are we going to test this thing?" I asked, facing our long-haired mechanical engineer. Cisco scratched the back of his head, and seemed confused for a minute.

"Well, we could -"

"Sorry for my late entrance. These stupid calls are going to be the death of me," said Dr. Wells in a moody tone, leaving his office and joining the four of us in the Cortex, "I see Artemis and Cisco have completed their work?"

"Yeah, we finished up yesterday. We just gotta pull some test runs, but we're not sure what to work this thing on," Cisco answered. Dr. Wells pursed his lips before answering.

"Didn't we have crash dummies in the back wings?" he asked.

"Crash dummies? Why would we have those here?" I inquired. Dr. Wells gave an amused look before answering.

"Remnants from an old experiment. Caitlin, would you happen to know where they are?"

"I'm guessing they're in the back rooms?" she answered.

"Great. Artemis, could you go get them? I'll start making preparations in the basement," Cisco requested, before taking the Shocker and leaving towards the elevator. Barry, Caitlin and Dr. Wells looked to me expectantly.

"Uhh, sure, I'll go look around for them," I responded, before turning away, leaving the three of them alone. I headed towards the back wing of STAR Labs and entered the appropriate room, where I spotted several test dummies thrown together in a closet. I retrieved four of them and walked back into the hall, on my way back to the Cortex and to the elevator, when a closed door taunted me in the corner of my eye.

It's the door to the room Cisco didn't let me enter yesterday.

Nobody's here with me, and Barry, Caitlin and Dr. Wells' shadows are nowhere to be seen. They must be discussing something behind closed doors.

As kind as they all are, there _are_ secrets being kept from me.

This could be my chance to figure out what's going on here. Caitlin and Dr. Wells rarely discussed things publicly. And Barry was always here, though I suspected that's solely because he's been long-time friends of Cisco and Caitlin. Maybe Caitlin's just checking up on him, because he said he had been hit by lightning and no other doctor or hospital could see him?

Thompson's words echoed in my head - the lab isn't a safe place.

But what would he know? He was a teenaged metahuman, unable to harness his own powers. I was a renown scientist, who worked at the facility. I had access to the lab. He didn't.

I bit my lip, chastising myself for thinking so. I was in no condition to compare myself to Thompson. The poor boy was confused by his circumstances.

My labmates weren't being secretive - I was simply new here. A few weeks, and I'd know as much as they did.

The door persistently tantalized me again. I could go in, have a quick look around, and come back out in a minute. If I got caught, I could say I was searching for the dummies. Or for extra materials. Or that I forgot we weren't allowed inside. Besides, what could they possibly have in there? Dead bodies?

I silenced my nagging conscience, and helplessly inserted my lab key into the lock. The handle loosened, and I felt awash with gratefulness, closing the door behind me. I dropped the dummies to the floor and found the light switch.

The room was large and circular, but aside from that, it's similar to the rest of the lab rooms, with high blue walls and a gray linoleum floor. It's completely empty, though, save for a large machine in the back. The machine had a large platform laid out on the ground, which was covered in a huge conveyor belt. Monitoring screens were built along the long side for easy access.

It... sort of resembled a sideways treadmill. A huge one, too, at that.

What on earth could it be used for? It's too big and too... complicated-looking... for any human.

My curiosity got the best of me, and I stepped onto the machine's deck, walking up to the screens facing me. They seemed fairly new. And not a speck of dust on them.

This machine has been used recently, I realized ominously.

I played around with the various buttons on the bottom of the screens, trying to see what they do, until one of them turned the center monitor on.

 **THE COSMIC TREADMILL HAS BEEN ACTIVATED.**

 **PLEASE ENTER YOUR DESIRED INPUT AND SPEED.**

A loud, monotonous female voice announced throughout the room. I hurriedly press the buttons again, trying to silence the machine so my coworkers won't hear.

"Hey, Artemis, Cisco's asking if you need any help with the dummies?" Barry called out, in the halls. His shadow slipped and disappeared under the door to the room I was in. I panicked and press more buttons to shut the machine down, but instead the machine beeped and made a whirring sound, like a small, but powerful, engine coming to life.

"Artemis, what are you -," I hear the door open behind me, "Oh _god_ -"

Barry's found me now, and his facial expression spelled pure fear. He sprinted over, pulled me off of the running platform by the arm, hopped onto it in my place, and quickly pressed a sequence of buttons, powering down the machine down.

"What on _earth_ are you doing?!" He demanded, clearly worried, "Don't you know you're not allowed in here?!"

"I was looking for the dummies?" I ask hopefully. Barry looks over to the pile of life-size dolls left by the door, then back to me, raising an eyebrow. I give him an anxious smile. He shook his head in disapproval, grabbed my elbow with one hand and pulled me behind him, stopping to scoop up the dummies and close the door behind him.

"She turned on the Cosmic Treadmill," he stated, as we entered the Cortex.

"Tattle tale," I cursed, under my breath.

Dr. Wells and Caitlin wore surprised looks. Cisco, who apparently returned from the basement, looked to me with wide eyes.

"She did what?" Cisco challenged, disbelieving Barry.

"She turned _on_ the Cosmic Treadmill," Barry reaffirmed.

"Cisco, I thought I had asked for you to warn her from going inside that room," Dr. Wells accused harshly, glaring at a bewildered Cisco.

"What - sir, I _did._ I don't know how she could've -"

"And you, Dr. Snow, didn't I ask for you to lock the door the last time we used it?!" Wells questioned angrily, now turning to an unsuspecting Caitlin.

"Sir, I thought I -"

"Stop yelling at them," I ordered, yanking my arm away from Barry, my tone surprising Dr. Wells, "Cisco _did_ tell me not to go inside, and the door _was_ locked. I disobeyed you. I'm sorry."

Dr. Wells removes his glasses and looks at me with an indignant light shining from his eyes.

"How did you manage to get inside?" he asked skeptically.

I held up my STAR Labs keys to answer his question. Wells studied me for a second, before clearing his throat.

"You must be wondering why you aren't allowed in that room," he expressed.

"Of course I want to know why I'm not allowed in there," I stated furiously, "Cosmic treadmill - who _uses_ that thing?"

"Nobody. It's not actually a treadmill. It's a generator Dr. Wells designed that would give us backup power in case an accident happens," Cisco explained, "I was responsible for building it, but it has a tendency to go haywire, which is why it's in its own room. It's an old project gone wrong..."

"And let me guess - you've been trying to fix it, but to no avail? And you kept me from it _specifically_ so I wouldn't go in there and turn it on?" I snapped. Cisco nodded his head earnestly.

"Oh..."

I turned to Barry, who still seemed shocked by my rash actions. Something clicked in my brain.

"How come Barry knows how to use it?" I asked apathetically, "He doesn't work here."

They all fell quiet and seem discomforted, clearly unable to come up with a ready answer. Barry scratched the back of his head before shrugging.

"Let's just say... you're not the only one who's misused their keys to break into the room," Barry admitted with a small wink.

"The bipedal turtle decided to go for a quick run?" I mused. Barry gave an embarrassed smile and shrugged again.

"What's this about a turtle?" Dr. Wells asked curiously.

"Artemis says Barry can't run," Caitlin explained. Wells gave her an amused smile before turning to me.

"Is that so, Ms. Van Kleiss?" he asked with an entertained smile, as if me thinking Barry couldn't run was the greatest news he had ever heard.

I gave Barry an apologetic look and nodded.

"No offense, dude, but I've seen babies with better running form," I admitted.

"Well, _sorry_. I can't help it," Barry argued, raising one shoulder, "What do you want me to do about it?"

"Run as if there's a pretty girl about to fry herself on a treadmill in front of you," Cisco joked, gesturing for me to follow him, "Come on, Artemis. Enough of this. We've got serious work to do."

I nod my head and gathered the dummies on the ground, but turned, facing Wells.

"And sir - you could've just told me what it was in that room, and I would've never gone in there. I know you probably thought it was the best thing to do for my own safety and whatnot, but I can't stand it when people keep secrets from me," I announced to the three of them.

"I have STAR Labs' best interests at heart. I would only hope that the reverse is true as well."

###

"What kind of name is 'Cosmic Treadmill' anyway?" I questioned Cisco as we begin wiring up the dummies down in the basement.

"Ionno. Just sounded cool at the time," Cisco mumbled as he adjusted the frequency range on the gun with a screwdriver.

"You built a generator and thought calling it a treadmill would be cool? How did _that_ cross your mind?"

Cisco looked up at me and shrugged his shoulders.

"Wait a second," I asked dramatically, "Is everything here space-themed?"

"What?"

"STAR Labs. Cosmic treadmill," I joked, pointing at a small trash bin by the door to the basement, "Is that, like, the gravitational garbage can?"

"Yeah, you're real funny," Cisco admitted sarcastically, throwing me an unimpressed glance, "I changed my mind. Your nicknames suck."

"That's not what you told Barry yesterday," I teased, raising an eyebrow at him as we worked.

"How did you know I talked to Barry yesterday?" he inquired, confused.

"I was in the room when he was on the phone with you, remember?" I reminded him, propping up the finished dummies at various locations in the open space.

"Oh. That's not awkward at all," he muttered. I smiled at him.

"So... we're testing a gun that has the ability to render us brain dead. Let's be a little careful." I said, handing him a pair of safety goggles.

"What are you talking about? This is the safest thing in the world," he retorted.

He signaled for me to stand behind him, which I did, and powered the weapon on. A small buzzing sound intensified as Cisco aimed the gun at one of the dummies. Once he pulled the trigger, though, he is thrown back a few feet by the power of the blast, and a purple bolt of electricity is wildly fired up at the ceiling, hitting one of the lights, where the jolt disappears in a fit of white static. I run over to Cisco and help him to his feet.

"That's the second time that thing has hurt you," I remarked, hoping he was okay. Cisco painfully nodded his head, and we opened up the Shocker's battery compartment.

"Think it has more power than necessary?" Cisco asked, turning the battery over in his hand. I pursed my lips and studied the weapon's design.

"It's a sufficient amount of energy," I answer, still in thought. Our calculations were more than correct. They corresponded directly with Caitlin's research.

"What if we need to regulate the frequency?" He asked. I could practically see the lightbulb go off in his head.

"Which means we would refine the amount of energy, and redesign the gun with a smaller, but more concentrated shot -" I added, catching onto what he's saying.

"Then the gun would have a more powerful impact -" Cisco continued, a smile appearing on his lips.

"And it would be easier to control! Cisco, you're a genius!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around his shoulders in a quick surprise hug. I pulled away and began disassembling the energy chambers of the gun, and we both picked up the various tools necessary, and got right to work. In two hours or so, we have the gun rebuilt, with a sharper range. Cisco and I get ready to shoot and pull our safety goggles down, though at this point, we both know they're unnecessary. Cisco smiles dubiously as he aims at the dummy placed farthest away from us.

"I got you now, Crash," he utters confidently, and he pulls the trigger, sending a concentrated shot of lightning right at into the dummy's synthetic rubber chest. The shock is absorbed, and nothing happens. We hurry over and go check the status of the dummy on a computer we brought with us.

 _ **NULLIFIED**_

The computer read on a screen, with the dummy crossed out on our virtual map. Cisco shrieked gleefully and we high-five'd each other. We ran the remaining tests, each one just as victorious as the first, and ran up to the Cortex to tell Dr. Wells the good news - the Shocker is a success, and can be used to stop the telekinetic meta.

"Hey, _Dr. Wells_!" Cisco sang out as the elevator door opened into the main room. Dr. Wells and Caitlin were studying something on a computer. Wells smiled at us as we entered.

"Guess who just created the next badass metahuman-stopping weapon of doom!" Cisco asked rhetorically, turning and giving me another high five. I couldn't help but smile at his happiness and at our success.

"She's ready to be handed over to the police," I said, placing the Shocker down on the table.

"The police?" Caitlin inquired curiously.

"Yeah - don't the police use our weapons to stop metahumans?" I questioned, "Didn't you guys say we're not the ones using the tech? We just create it, right?"

Wasn't that what they said? The police kept going on and on about how they had a good relationship with the lab...

How did I still not know what went on here?

"Ah, yes. Yes, indeed. The police will take care of our metahumans," Dr. Wells affirmed, annoyance flashing in his eyes for a mere millisecond at Caitlin before returning to his fatherly light.

"What about the Red Streak?" I asked.

"The red what, now?" Cisco responded. The three of them stared at me as if I just cussed at their mothers.

"The - the red metahuman who runs impossibly fast. He was there to stop Thompson. What if he decides to pay the police a visit again when they're trying to stop this new guy, Rajeet?"

Dr. Wells looked at Caitlin and Cisco, who are both silent, then turned to me with a sad smile.

"Artemis, the Red Streak is an urban legend. A myth," Dr. Wells consoled, "He's not real."

"But, Dr. Wells, I _saw_ him. He stopped Thompson from poisoning the entire city. He saved me. Iris runs a blog about him - she has proof," I said dejectedly, not believing what my employer was telling me.

Maybe he just hasn't seen the Red Streak. Maybe he dislikes the Red Streak for getting in the way of STAR Labs' work, interfering with the police.

Maybe the Red Streak is evil and Dr. Wells is trying again to keep me safe.

No, that can't be it. Whatever it is he's hiding - it's much bigger than a matter of safety, but Dr. Wells _knows_ the Streak exists. That much, I am certain of.

"Iris West doesn't have any real evidence to prove his existence." Dr. Wells countered casually.

"She's says she's met him, Dr. Wells," I protested, confused as to what he's trying to say, "And I don't see any reason why she'd lie about that. If this is another one of your attempts at trying to protect me, then -"

"Perhaps she's arguing her case to get a position at the Picture News. Have you thought of that?" Dr. Wells persisted.

And it sort of did make sense - Iris would need something groundbreaking to impress her boss. But she seemed too genuine to be a liar. Why would she-

No, stop thinking negatively.

Cisco and Caitlin had been unnervingly quiet the entire time, avoiding eye contact with me.

"Well, what do you guys think?" I asked, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Of what?" Cisco asked, startled.

"Of the Streak. Do you think he's real?"

Come on, Cisco _had_ to support me on this.

"I've - I've never seen him. Dr. Wells is right. He doesn't exist. He's just a legend," Cisco said flatly, giving me a hopeful look. Caitlin, on the other hand, was biting her lower lip again. She was nervous. I felt bad for targeting her, but Barry said she knew more about metahumans than anyone else in the city.

"Caitlin?"

"Yes?" she replied, regaining composure and looking me in the eye.

"When we had breakfast with Iris the other day, you didn't denounce the Streak then. Do you believe he exists?"

She twiddled her thumbs and bit her lip again before answering me.

"Um, no. I've personally never really taken an interest in the Streak. I've got enough on my hands," she answered, before turning back around to pick something up from her desk. She caught Dr. Wells giving her an expectant look. Obeying whatever silent command he was giving her, she slowly turned to face me again.

"As far as I'm concerned, he doesn't exist," she recited in a perfect tone, all signs of worry or fear gone from her voice, replaced with clear confidence. Three sets of eyes are all nervously watching me now, waiting for my reaction. I stuffed my hands into the pockets of my lab coat.

I know what I saw, and I know there was no way I could've magically arrived at the airport that day. And Iris knows of the Red Streak. And so do Eddie and Joe and the rest of the cops who were there that day.

Dr. Wells is purposely keeping this a secret from me, I thought. He doesn't want me to know, and he has his associates - my friends - in on his wishes. The thought unnerved me.

"Oh. That makes sense," I responded falsely, keeping my voice even. I casually nodded my head at them, "You're right. My eyes must have been playing tricks on me when Thompson had his smoke show going on. Silly me," I declared with a tinny laugh. Cisco smiles at me and lets out a yawn.

"Well, time to go home again!" he proclaimed, grabbing his suede jacket off of one of the other desks. He stopped and turned around, lifting a lanyard off of the table.

"Barry forgot his keys again," he muttered, looking back at the three of us. I held my hand out to him, gesturing for him to give me the keys.

"I'll drop'em off again. The police station is on the way home, anyway."

Cisco studied the situation for a second, looking back and forth between me and the keys. A coy smile appeared on his lips.

"That clever sneak," he whispered in awe.

"What?"

"Not you - him. Sly fox is leaving his keys here on purpose to spend more time with you."

"What?" I snapped, snatching the keys from him, "Don't be ridiculous. They're just a set of keys."

"Oh no, they're not. I know that boy better than -" Cisco started. I cut him off with a murderous glare.

"Okay, okay! Sheesh! I'm just trying to lighten up the mood here!" He argued. I give him a weak smile and sheepishly apologized before I left.

Back at the police station, I ignored Lake's rambunctious yells for me to stop and log myself in with her, and made my way up the stairs and to the criminology lab.

Barry was looking at notes and newspaper articles that were pinned to the huge bulletin board. Once he saw me, he quickly pulled the map down over it.

"Hey," he remarked.

I held up his keys. "Second time in two days, Barry. Cisco's starting to think you leave them behind on purpose so I can bring them to you."

I dropped the lanyard into his hands. He raised an eyebrow in question, but cracked a grin.

"Nah, I'm just a bit of a klutz," he asserted, walking back to the counter.

"Yeah, your running form definitely exemplifies that," I retorted, "What have you got here?" I asked, pointing to the vials of blood Barry has stacked up in a test tube holder.

"Not much. Running a few DNA tests for a minor crime committed this morning," he answered, removing his gloves and washing his hands.

"What kind of crime?" I inquired. Barry turned around and smiled at me.

"I'm not allowed to disclose police details to civilians," he answered.

"You're not allowed to share details with us about who it is we could be endangered by?" I rebutted, walking over to the floor-to-ceiling window, scoping the view, "Makes sense."

Barry narrowed his eyes at me.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" he asked politely, "I'm not really allowed to have visitors."

"What - so police staff can hang out at our lab as _much_ as they want to, but visitors from STAR Labs aren't allowed to do the same _here_?" I joked.

He shrugged. "No, not at all. Our receptionist just gets nosy if someone's here without reason."

"Tell your receptionist I'm here on behalf of STAR Labs. Or to take a chill pill. Same difference."

Barry rolled his eyes at me.

"Alright, you can stay, but don't get me into trouble," he responded, rolling his eyes.

I walked around his lab, taking notice of the layout and the chemical cabinets placed by the left side of the lab, while Barry kept working. The cabinets were made of glass, but look new, as if they've been refurbished. Above, the glass roof looked as if it's been replaced as well. I must be standing in the same exact spot where Barry was struck by lightning, I realized.

I turned and watched Barry work. He was engrossed in his task, using some kind of machine to run a scan on an object, marking his results down in pen on an adjacent chart.

His quiet air of determination was something to admire, really.

I felt glad to have scored a friendship with him, and continued walking around his lab, past shelves lined with tools and beakers, past a neat desk with unopened files and two photo frames - one depicting Detective Joseph West with his arms around Iris and Barry, the other of Barry standing next to an older blonde man with a small beard. The other man bore a strong resemblance to him, and the two look almost identical save for their age, their hair color, and small differences in their smiles. He must be a close relative, I concluded, and plan to leave soon, not wanting to make Barry uncomfortable with my presence.

I'm about to say goodbye and head out, when I noticed the board standing in the other side of the room. It's covered with a map of Central City, and surrounding areas.

"What's this?" I ask, feeling the unsmoothness underneath the map.

"Oh, that's a map of the county and the districts. It's nothi -"

"I meant what's underneath it. You pulled the map down when I came in," I said neutrally, "Is it okay if I see what it is?"

Barry thought it over for a second, before walking over to me and pulling the map lower, then letting it go. The map immediately rolled itself up, revealing the newspaper articles and other pieces of information he had been reading, pinned to a corkboard.

 **NORA ALLEN MURDER** is printed across the top, and the headlines on the articles read similarly.

"I - when I was eleven years old, my mother was killed by something that made no sense, and my father went to prison for her murder. The crime is still unsolved."

"Your... your mother was Nora Allen?" I gasped, though the evidence is right there. There are photographs of the murder scene - of a woman with light brown hair lain dead on the ground in an unhumanly position, knife through her chest, blood blooming through her shirt and onto the floor. Other pictures show a younger version of Barry's father being led away by cops. My breath falls short and my heart starts pumping faster. I read an excerpt of the first article.

 **NORA ALLEN, 32, KILLED BY HUSBAND. ONLY WITNESS IS SON, WHO CLAIMS FATHER IS INNOCENT**

(MARCH 19, 2000) _Last night, Nora Allen, 32, had been stabbed to death by her husband, Henry Allen, 35. The latter called the police station around midnight, saying lights were zooming around his wife inside his home, and that she needed help. When the police arrived about 10 minutes later, Nora was found dead in her living room, stabbed through her heart. Allen argues that he did not commit the murder, and their son, Bartholomew, who was the lone witness to the scene, states that his father is innocent, that his mother was killed by "monsters made of lightning." Officials have no choice but to arrest Henry Allen, convicting him of first-degree murder. The police suspect drug and/or alcohol abuse and -_

I didn't have the heart to continue reading, and looked through the rest of the board. My heart broke at a picture of Nora Allen, alive, hugging her young son at a park. She seemed like a lively and loving woman, just as my own mother did, with Barry's bright smile and the wind blowing through her reddish hair.

"Barry, it _was_ you," I mumble, and I pulled my fist to my mouth to keep myself from crying as I read a handwritten description of the scene.

 _03/18/2000_

 _\- around midnight - awoken by small earthquake_

 _\- hear Mom scream, go outside_

 _\- she's in the living room, bright lights are running around her at impossibly fast speeds_

 _\- i scream and try to help her, somehow i'm outside_

 _\- run back inside house, mom is dead, lightning is gone_

 _\- police came in and arrested my dad_

His recount of the night is almost identical to mine, except my father had been killed the week before.

"Artemis, are you alright?" Barry asked gently.

"Barry, have you heard of the murders of Laurus and Ariadne Van Kleiss?" I asked.

He shook his head no, confused. Without asking, I walked over to the computer at his desk, and I searched up the link to an archive I made online. The link showed detailed articles of what happened as well as police reports, and Barry leaned down to read them.

"Your mother was killed on the same night?!" He inquired, bewildered.

"Keep reading," I urged, and Barry hesitantly faced the computer again, his expression changing from astonishment to disbelief as he read about how my mother had been killed the same way, on the same night, with me giving a similar background as to what I saw. The police and detectives had been unable to trace a suspect, and both the cases of my father's as well as my mother's murder have officially been declared cold, the murderer now on the loose.

Barry turned to me and began asking questions, but I ignored him and took the mouse from him.

"This is original footage from our security cameras at our home from that night," I stated, scrolling down and clicking a video.

Barry watched the video images of my mom and I sleeping in a dark room, me waking up and awakening my mother too. My mother turns on the lamp on her nighttable, and suddenly, the doors to the balcony explode, throwing glass everywhere, and bright lights barraged around the room. My mother tries to shoot them down, and at some point in the footage, I disappear from the bed. In less than five seconds or so, the lights disappear and a yellowish ghost materializes by my mother's bedside, and my mother has the most horrified look on her face. An eight year old me barges in through the bedroom door alongside several guards, my mom yells out a quick warning to me, the yellow figure stabs her, and another figure just like him except in red, appears and runs into him, and they both disappear.

As the video ended, Barry faced me, colorless.

"Artemis, that's almost exactly what had happened at my own home," he answered, his voice hushed.

"Artemis," Barry said, turning my chair so I was facing him, "Do you realize what this means?"

"The murders must have been connected," I whispered, "We have twice as much information to solve them with now."

Barry gave me a small, but encouraging smile, and squeezed my hand supportively as I began to show him a police report that has all of the little data that was collected.

"Alright. You've been in here long enough, girly. Out! Now!" A woman yelled out at the doorway. It's old Lake, and she was enraged.

"Lake, no, it's fine. She's here for work-relate-"

" _Out_. Now. You know the drill, Barry. No visitors without appointments, unless its an emergency," she scorned, "And - _this_ \- doesn't look like an emergency. You're playin' computer games."

Lake raised an eyebrow at us, and I sheepishly got up to walk out. Barry followed me, and the three of us walk down the stairs into the lobby of the police station. I was about to turn and say goodbye, when Lake made a low growling sound and pointed a withered finger right in my face, startling me.

"And you, Missy! I find you in here without an appointment again, you'll find yourself wishing you were never born!" She barked, yelling loud enough for everyone in the station to hear and turn their heads towards us. I blushed from the sudden embarrassment, but smiled guiltily at Barry.

"Shall we make an appointment, then? To continue talking about this later?" I asked.

"Sure thing. I'll text you," he agreed, with an apologetic smile pointed at Lake.

At home, I have little to do before I go over to the West's house. Iris had asked me to come over to her place later on in the afternoon to discuss Thompson's attack last week, and I had agreed. My conversation with Barry replays itself in my head, and I can't help but continue to look up more details of Nora Allen's murder online in my free time. When the time came, I left my apartment and hailed a taxi to the West residence.

I rang the doorbell once, waiting outside. Nobody answered, and I rang it again.

That's funny, I mused. There should be people at home.

Iris seemed like a responsible person. She wouldn't forget a meeting.

After a moment, I heard a woman yelling inside the house, followed by a male voice consenting, "Alright, alright!" and the door opened to reveal Barry, in an old navy sweater and plaid university pajamas, holding a bowl of mac n' cheese.

"Artemis? Hi?" He stated, clearly surprised to see me, "Umm, are you here to see me?"

"No, I'm here for Iris," I responded, furrowing my eyebrows, "Although it's a surprise to see you too? I didn't know you, erm, lived here."

Barry looked down at his bowl of mac n' cheese and his cozy outfit, and nodded shyly.

"I, uhh, yeah, I live here."

"I can see that," I retorted, "Is Iris home?"

"Yes, I am! Barry, stop standing there with your mouth hanging and invite her inside!" Iris scolded as she appeared in the doorway. She gave Barry's shoulder a playful shove out of the way, and gestured for me to enter, "Welcome to the West house, Artemis. I was just setting up for you, and asked Barry to get off of his butt and answer the door, but he loves his dinner more than his guest etiquette."

Barry protested with a mouth full of food, and Iris mischievously glared at him as she walked away from him.

Oh, this was cute. He lived with his crush, and she had no idea about his feelings...

I raised an eyebrow at Barry and grinned at him as I followed her to a dinner table, where a laptop, recorder and notepad were waiting for us. Iris sat down at the laptop, and I took a seat beside her. Barry convened with us at the seat across from us, still invested in his food.

"So what exactly are you two meeting up for?" he asked, scraping the last of his mac n' cheese out of the bowl with his spoon.

For someone so tall and scrawny, he seemed to have _quite_ the appetite.

"I wanted to get Artemis' insight on last week's sighting of the Red Streak," Iris stated.

"What, are you going to publish it on your blog or something?" Barry cracked. The humorous look on his face melted when Iris nodded her head, and he rolled his eyes.

"Iris, you know that's not the best idea," he stated, getting up for another bowl of food. Iris turned her recorder on, and when Barry returned, he placed a bowl in front of me. I thanked him, as he sat back in front of me with his own bowl, now replenished with mac n' cheese.

"So, Artemis. Just tell me everything you know, everything you saw, and feel free to share as many or as few details as you'd like," Iris stated with a kind smile. Both her and Barry were waiting for me to speak at this point. I gathered my thoughts before I began recounting the events of that day - of how I found myself alone on the street, and a metahuman appeared, in a brawl with the police, caught me as a hostage, before the Red Streak appeared and heroically got everyone out of the way, and how the next thing I knew, I was at the airport with my belongings.

Iris listened with intent, keen interest, jotting down notes. Barry, on the other hand, listened half-heartedly, appearing to focus more on his food than on my words, as if he's tired of hearing people discuss the Streak with Iris.

"That was perfect, actually. It's the ideal amount of information. I could get started with the article right away as a matter of fact," she answered, clearly pleased with my input.

"Yeah, but don't be getting caught up in metahuman attacks just to get her more details, Artemis," Barry warned, "Iris' pretentious little obsession with the Streak isn't exactly the safest hobby."

"Get us something to drink, will you?" She countered, silencing him. Barry left the table and returned with a third helping of mac n' cheese for himself, and various canned sodas.

"Can I ask what your reaction to seeing the Streak was, Artemis?" Iris asked, looking up from her laptop to me. Now, even Barry was giving me his full attention.

"At first, I was scared right out of my wits. One metahuman had me captured, and then another one arrives at the scene? And the cops are barely able to contain the first? But when I saw how - how _powerful_ the Streak was, and what he could do, and how mind-blowingly fast he was, I was really shocked - it was incredible!" I replied, recalling how impressed I was with my first encounter with the Streak. Or, rather, my second...

Was the Streak even a hero? Or was he some demon who kept other metahumans out of the way to keep himself the most powerful?

"Iris, could I see your other articles about him? I'm just curious about what else the Red Streak has done."

She smiled knowingly at me, and opened up at new tab on her laptop screen.

"You've come to the right place. I have the biggest and most detailed archive on the Red Streak's sightings in the entire city," she claimed proudly. Her blog proves to live up to its word. Several articles describing the arrival of the Streak, Iris' own theories about him, along with pictures submitted by civilians, as well as detailed sketches of the figure, can be found on the website, along with dates published. Most of the articles are fairly recent.

"How long has the Streak been around, exactly?" I asked. Iris pushed her laptop towards me, and I freely glimpsed through a few of her articles.

"I can't be sure... A few months at most? He just appeared in the city recently," She guessed.

"No, he has to have been around for much longer than that," Barry interjected, mumbling.

"Well, what would you know?" I asked, questioning his logic, "Didn't you say you recovered from your coma only recently as well?"

Wait.

Barry woke up from his coma a few months ago.

And the Red Streak has only been sighted for a little over a few months ago as well...

Barry watched me coolly, with an eyebrow raised, almost as if he was daring me to make the inference.

No, it can't be him.

Barry was a bit slow and meticulous with everything, with a strong emphasis on the _slow_. He was the most cautious and careful person I had met in the city, and his running performance this morning definitely proved he couldn't run five feet, despite the appearance of his physical strength.

Barry couldn't be the Red Streak.

Anyone _but_ Barry Allen, I thought, with a silent laugh at my foolish thoughts.

"I'm just saying it's kind of strange that he'd show up now rather than later, like he just appeared out of nowhere," Barry continued, although his explanation makes no sense to the two of us.

"Iris, do you know if he's a metahuman? If he was affected by the particle accelerator and if _that's_ what gave him his abilities?" I asked, clicking through blurry photos of the red man, and drawings people had sent in of him.

"I actually can't say about that," Iris conceded. I gave her back her laptop and nodded at her words.

"Yeah, you'd have to ask STAR Labs about him..." Barry answered cautiously.

But... But STAR Labs denounced the existence of the Red Streak. And didn't want me to know of him, or even bring him up, for that matter.

"STAR Labs doesn't know much about him, unfortunately..." I stated, not wanting to bring up my suspicion that they were keeping secrets about him. Iris and Barry both nodded their heads in reluctance. Barry had his last bite of mac n' cheese, got up to put his plate away, then moved to the living room. I could hear the TV turn on, and a sports commentator describing a missed slam dunk.

Iris and I continued with our work, and she answered a few of my questions, and I answered hers. As she told me about how the Red Streak has met up with her in person, the front door opened, revealing the two officers from yesterday - Detective West and Eddie Thawne.

Iris, Barry and I smiled and greeted them, and Detective West returned the greeting before excusing himself to go upstairs. Iris shot Barry a demanding glance, and Barry sighed as he got up to make some coffee. Eddie walked over behind Iris's chair, and after looking over his shoulder, bent down to softly kiss the crown of her forehead. Behind him, in the kitchen, Barry rolled his eyes towards Eddie's actions.

"Are we still on for tonight?" Eddie whispered to her, gently caressing her face.

"Eddie, I'm working," she protested with a small giggle, smiling peacefully at him. Eddie brought his hand forward and closed the laptop, raising his eyebrows at her expectantly.

"Fine," she conceded, pulling her jacket off of the back of the chair, "What's my excuse for tonight?"

Was she honestly going to leave me for a date with her boyfriend?

Just like that?

"I'll take care of it. You just play along," he said. Iris consented, and put her finger to her lips as she looked at me. Barry exhaled and wiped his hands down his face, obviously irritated, though he hid his reaction from Iris and Eddie.

Detective West returned downstairs to find the four of us seated at his dinner table, mugs of coffee set out.

"Baby, you going somewhere?" he asked, taking notice of Iris ready to leave as he joined us at the table. Barry and I turned to watch her speak.

"Yeah, there was something I wanted to go do tonight, Dad. I'm sorry," she allowed.

Eddie cleared his throat beside her. "Iris and I were just talking about how _Space Destroyers III_ comes out tonight, and we both really wanted to go see the opening premiere."

His acting skills were pretty good, actually, but West didn't buy it.

"Space Destroyers? Since when have you been into science fiction?" West asked Iris skeptically.

"Since Barry got me into it," Iris responded, clearly turning Barry over to cover for her.

"Yeah, I made her watch the first two movies with me last week. She's totally obsessed now," Barry mumbled, throwing Iris back under the bus.

"I'm all for Galactyon's return, you know. It's supposed to be epic," Iris said, still smiling at her father.

"Well, you're too old to for me to turn you away from the movies, now. Why don't you go with them, Bear?" West questioned, taking a sip of his coffee. Barry threw his stepfather an _are-you-serious?_ look, as if Joe should know better than to ask Barry to tag along with Iris and Eddie, but shrugged his shoulders casually.

"I wanted to hang out with Artemis tonight," he conceded, folding his arms across his chest as he turned to me. Iris gave Barry a grateful smile, and left with Eddie. West finally acknowledged me.

"Hi... Artemis," he greeted, looking back and forth between Barry and me, clearly not buying Barry's story, either.

"Hi Mr. West," I responded nervously, hoping he still didn't hate me for my skirmish with Eddie the other day and for what I had said about the police not dealing with metahumans properly.

"Call me Joe," he said with a warm smile. Barry brought him a plate of mac n' cheese, and Joe took it from him, getting up to leave.

"No, no, sit down. You don't need to leave," Barry protested kindly, and Joe obliged, returning to his seat, "We actually had something we'd like to discuss with you."

We did? What could it be?

"Well, what is it?" Joe asked kindly, taking a bite of his dinner.

"I'm not sure where to begin with this, but Artemis' lost her mother the same night I did. We think - we believe the murders may be connected," Barry explained.

Joe obviously has no qualms over discussing death over dinner. He gave Barry a questioning look.

"Bear, you know better than to say something like that. Several people die several times a night in this country," Joe explained sadly, "I'm sorry for the loss of your mother, Artemis, but as someone who works with police investigations, Barry should know better than to assume that -"

"Her mother was killed the same way, Joe."

Barry's words threw Joe off.

"What - like a stabbing?" He asked.

"Speedsters," Barry responded in complete seriousness.

"Speedsters," Joe whispered in amazement, "Now - Artemis - do you have any evidence or any proof that your mother's murder could be related to that of Nora Allen?"

"I have the original security footage, sir, and I am an eye-witness to the crime. And I have due reason to believe my father was killed by the same person only the week before," I responded.

"The details are exactly the same, Joe," Barry added hopefully, "And Artemis said she saw the man who did it. We could finally get some answers."

"March 19th, in the year 2000?" Joe asked, still not believing us.

"Yes. March 19th, in the same year," I replied, "My mother was killed about an hour or so after Nora Allen was."

Joe gave us both an uncanny, scared stare, before responding.

"I'll - I'll look into this. Strange as hell," he muttered, before putting his dishes away and walking back upstairs, leaving Barry and I alone at the kitchen table. We made quick eye contact for a second, before we looked away. Barry let out a deep sigh.

"You've barely touched your food, Artemis," he noted. My soda can was waiting before me,unopened, and I'd only taken a single bite of my food.

"Oh. Right," I replied, giving a nervous laugh. Just as I was about to pick up my spoon, Barry snatched my bowl from me and slipped back into the kitchen, placing the bowl in his microwave oven.

"Nobody enjoys cold mac 'n cheese," he stated matter-of-factly, giving me back my bowl. I smiled graciously at him.

"Thanks, Barry," I said, and helped myself to a spoonful of the food, "Oh my god, I haven't had mac n' cheese this good in _years."_

"Really?" Barry asked, pleased with my reaction. I nodded my head at him.

"That makes me really happy, because for once, someone enjoys my cooking."

"What - _you_ made this?!"

"Yeah, from scratch and everything," he explained, chuckling.

"Oh, don't worry," I joked, "If you ever cook dinner again, and nobody wants to eat your food, just invite me over and I'll take care of it for you."

"Definitely," Barry agreed with a laugh. I ate the last of my dinner, and got up to put the bowl away. Barry rose as well and handed me my soda.

"Do you watch football?" He asked, out of the blue.

"What?"

"Football," he repeated, blinking, "Umm...It's the game where there are two teams, and they have to -"

I frowned. "Barry, of course I know what football is. Why do you ask?"

"Just thought you'd be interested in knowing that the Patriots are playing the Central City Cougars tonight," he conceded, "And, well, the game is starting soon."

"The team from New England is playing against the team from Central City?"

"Yes."

"And you would like to watch with me, knowing that I'm from New England - from the same state as the team, as a matter of fact - and _you're_ from Central City?"

"Yes."

"And you thought I would turn you down?" I asked coyly.

Barry was all smiles and led me back to the living room, where the game has already begun on TV. We sat down and I tried my best to stay interested in the game, while Barry easily blazoned support. On screen, the Cougars scored a touchdown, and of course Barry's rubbing this in my face.

"Oh man, Davidson totally creamed you guys right there!"

"Oh yeah? Well, um," I attempted, having no idea who 'Davidson' was, "Well, Brady's still going to, erm, get you in the next quarter!"

"Not with that defense, he's not. And you don't have any good offense on your blind side, either."

"That's because we, um, don't need offense there!"

"Are you serious? That dive play totally ruined you guys!"

"Well, we, um, we don't, uh... At least we don't have a halfback!"

Barry looked baffled by my words, and gave me a perplexed look.

"What does your halfback have anything to do with this? And you _do_ have one - he's called a runningback..."

"Umm... So? That doesn't matter."

"Artemis, do you even know football?" Barry asked.

"No," I answered timidly.

Barry gave me a shocked look.

"Well, you gotta give me credit for trying," I retorted, "All I know is that these guys are losing their brain cells and risking severe injuries, and that I need the red, white, and blue team to win. Isn't that enough?"

Barry sighed and nodded at me, smiling in spite of the situation.

"Sure? But you don't need to worry - the 'red, white and blue team' doesn't stand much of a chance," he answered with a wink.

"They're neck at neck right now," I replied, checking the score on the TV.

"Oh good. At least she can read stats," he joked.

"Barry, I went to MIT," I responded in seriousness.

He gave me a blank expression, probably unsure if he had offended me or not, and I smiled and gently slapped his shoulder. We continued watching the rest of the game together, and just when it seemed that the game would end in a tie, the Cougars managed a last touchdown, and Barry was relentless in humiliating me.

"Yes! I told you - see, I told you! The Patriots lost!" He teased, shaking me by the shoulder as he watched the team cheer. I rolled my eyes but smiled silently, enjoying Barry's company. Joe hurried downstairs, frowning.

"Barry - what's all this noise? I was in a phone call," he demanded, "The chief could barely hear a word I was saying!"

Barry faced him with a cheesy grin.

"The Cougars beat the Patriots," he explained proudly.

"So? It's not like the Patriots stood a chance, anyway," Joe replied assertively.

Barry turned and gave me an adorable smile. I shrugged.

"Everything okay with you?" Joe asked me, though I knew he didn't mean it rudely.

"Oh, nothing," Barry answered for me, "She's just upset because her team lost."

"What?" Joe exclaimed with a laugh, "Oh, right. You just moved here from New England. Well, I suggest you switch teams quick, Artemis. You're in Cougar Country now."

"I'll see about that, Joe," I debated, "You only beat us by one point, anyway. Not exactly a deciding factor."

"No, but see here, Artemis - " Barry said, turning to me and resting his elbow on my shoulder, moving his hands as he spoke, "You don't exactly want to live in Central City as a Patriot's fan, because - face it - the Cougars are just a better team anyway."

I was about to rebut his comment with a sheepish argument, only to be interrupted by Iris entering in from the front door, smiling and waving goodbye to someone outside. Outside, a car pulled away from the Wests' driveway.

"How was the movie?" Joe asked. Iris closes the door behind us and looks confused for a second.

"What movie?" She replied innocently, before widening her eyes and realizing the mistake in her response, "Oh! Space Destroyers! No - it was boring. We left early. We weren't having any fun."

Joe let out a low whistle, and crossed his arms, incredulously studying his daughter.

"You left the movies early?" I asked, "But you were gone for at least three hours."

Barry quickly placed an arm over my shoulder, shaking his head at me to stay quiet.

"No, we, uhh, we decided to go out for dinner instead," Iris answered, before turning Barry and me and smiling with a raised eyebrow.

"And what have _you_ two been up to?" She asked flirtatiously.

"Nothing! We were just watching the game!" Barry answered, becoming flustered and awkwardly moving his hand off of me and into his hair.

He's blushing, I noticed. Why would he be doing that?

"What game?" Iris asked coolly. She definitely saw more in his reaction than I did, because she was smirking at us.

"Patriots vs. Cougars," I answered.

"Yeah, Artemis is a Patriots fan, so I thought it would be interesting to watch the game with her," Barry answered clumsily.

"And _was_ it interesting?" Iris asked again, putting a hand to her waist.

"The game itself wasn't. The Cougars won by a single point," I retorted.

"Oh. That kind of mentality won't work here, Artemis. You're in Cougar Country," Iris bantered authoritatively.

"That's what Barry and I were telling her!" Joe guffawed, and he high-fived his daughter.

"Alright, well it's a clear sign this Patriot needs to go home, where there aren't any Cougar fans hunting her down," I joked, and walked towards the door, when a set of keys threw itself in front of me. Barry caught the keys, and surprised, we both looked at Joe, who tossed them.

"Be a man and drop her home. It's late," Joe affirmed, and before I can tell them it's not an issue, Barry replies, "Got it!" and is on his way out the door. I thank Joe and Iris, and follow Barry out the door.

"Hey, guys! Wait up! I wanna come too!" Iris protested, but Joe stopped her.

"Not tonight, young lady," Joe asserted, his tone slightly stern, "You've had enough fun for today. We gotta talk about your little outings with my partner."

Iris gave her father a guilty look before they both wave goodbye to me one last time and closed the door behind them.

"Is everything okay?" I asked Barry as I got in the passenger seat of Joe's car.

"Yeah, it's all cool. Iris has been keeping her relationship with Eddie a secret from Joe, but he's a detective _and_ her father. It was only a matter of time before she slipped, anyway," Barry explained, backing the car out of the driveway.

"Why wouldn't Joe want her dating Eddie?"

"Because Eddie's a cop, and Iris could get hurt if she became too involved in his life."

"Does Joe know you like Iris?"

Barry shoved the breaks in surprise, and the car halted to a sudden stop, scaring me. He turned to me and smiled with raised eyebrows.

" _Yes_ , Artemis," he sighed, "Everyone knows I like Iris."

"Even Iris?"

"No, not Iris."

"What about Eddie?"

"Eddie would kill me if he found out," Barry cursed, putting the car into drive again.

"Well, I know," I mused, "But I won't tell a soul."

"Thank you, Artemis," Barry answered flatly. An idea occurs to me, but it's so insane, I'm unsure if I should share it. After a moment of silence, I decide to speak up.

"You know, if you're ever bogged down into third-wheeling with them, and want to get out of it, you're more than welcome to throw me under the bus again," I suggested awkwardly, "And, well, if you ever need someone to eat your food, or if you ever need a football buddy, you can always ask me."

I seriously hoped he wasn't getting the wrong idea about me. I wasn't one to tear relationships apart, anyhow, and I had no interest in the Barry/Iris/Eddie love triangle.

Lucky for me, Barry smiled and nodded his head.

"Sounds good, although I usually prefer my 'football buddies' to actually, you know, _understand_ the game," he declared.

"I've got some research to do, then."

Barry laughed. We arrived at my apartment complex, and Barry parked the car. Surprising me, he got out of the car and we walked to my apartment together, in silence.

"You know, Artemis?" He remarked, out of the blue, "Nobody's ever really tried to help me out like that, by offering to third-wheel with me. I don't think I can turn your offer down, now."

"Well, we can call it Operation Fourth Wheel, if you wanted to make it official," I offered, "How's that sound?"

"Operation Fourth Wheel," Barry mused, "You know, Cisco's come up with far worse things, so it's honestly not that bad."

We reached my apartment door, and he offered me a handshake, to seal the deal.

"I'll see you around, then, Artemis."

"Likewise, Bartholomew."

"Just call me Barry, please."

"Mmmm...It doesn't quite work that way, Gary."

Barry facepalmed himself, and I laughed.

"Although - Artemis?"

"Mmm?"

"We, uh, we should be careful. With our little ruse."

"What do you mean?"

"Let's not give Cisco further reason to make fun of us... He can be ...relentless... especially because we're _both_ his friends."

"Oh," I replied, registering his words, "Oh, yeah. No. Don't worry. You're the last person on Earth _I'd_ fall for."

Even in the dark, I was able to make out Barry's eyes glinting as he scowled at my surprise comment. I cringed.

"Thanks."

"No - shoot. I didn't mean it like - oh forget it," I conceded, giving up, "You're hopeless."

"I love you too. Good night," Barry said, smiling coyly at me as he turned away.

"Yeah, thanks for the ride home. And dinner. And the game. We'll get you next time."

"Ehhh, no you won't."

"Barry?"

"Yes?"

"Get out."

With that, Barry threw me one final smirk before disappearing around the corner, and once again, I found myself wishing I could spend just a _little_ more time with him.

Despite our annoying moments with each other, he really was a likable person.

We have more common ground than we thought, I realized, recalling the pictures of his dead mother.


	7. Unexpected Trouble

That night, I was fast asleep when my phone went off around 2 am or so. I groggily answered, and my drowsiness was soon scared off by the immediate sound of Dr. Wells yelling on the other end of the line.

"Get to STAR Labs right now! There's been a metahuman attack on 15th!

"Is it Rajeet?" a voice that sounded like Cisco's asked calmly. It then struck me that I was in a group call.

"Yes! Hurry, we don't have much time before he gets away!" Dr. Wells demanded.

"We're on our way, sir," Caitlin assured, before dropping her line.

"I am too," said Cisco, before I heard two more clicks.

"Wait, could someone wait for me and give me a ride?" I asked, totally confused. I had no quick way of getting to the lab. Caitlin and Cisco both owned cars, while I got around via taxis or buses, or on foot.

"Hello? Dr. Wells?"

Nobody answered. Everyone had dropped their lines, and I was the last one left in the call. I tried calling them again, to no avail.

Panicking as to what could be going on, I hurried out of bed, slipped on a pair of shoes and my jacket, grabbed my phone and keys, and ran out the door in my pajamas.

Of course, at 2:27 am, public transportation does not exist, and I gathered myself and forced myself to sprint to the lab as fast as I possibly could, forcing myself to use whatever energy I had. The run took me about twenty or so minutes, but I barged into the Cortex, finding Cisco, Dr. Wells, and Caitlin Snow all working at computers at the main desk in the Cortex, each of them looking extremely worried, shouting orders at nobody in particular.

"No! No! No! Look to your left, and be careful! He's hiding!" Cisco yelled, reaching over and typing madly on one of the other computers.

"Aim properly before you take him down! You can't harm a civilian with that thing!" Caitlin added, just as stressed as Cisco was, "The damage is irreversible!"

"Guys, I'm so sorry I'm late! I don't own a car and none of you answered my calls," I said, panting from my run, surprising all three of them. All three of them removed their focus from the computer screens, and looked up at me, Cisco and Caitlin with what looks like shock, Dr. Wells with anger. Cisco immediately typed something else in, and the screens on the walls of the Cortex shut down.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, what are you doing here?" Dr. Wells asked, clearly unhappy with me.

"I got your call," I answered, still hyperventilating, "To come to the Lab as soon as possible."

I then realize what a mess I must look like. Unbrushed hair, old pajamas, running sneakers - I didn't even remember to bring my lab coat, although something tells me the three of them aren't conducting lab work. Caitlin, who was giving me a horrified look, glances away as Cisco brought her attention to one of the monitors. She picked up an earpiece, and began giving commands.

"I - you've got to keep him distracted. You're toast if he sees you."

"What happened? Is something wrong back at the Lab?" a familiar voice asked out of nowhere.

"No, nothing's wrong here. We just ...have a surprise visitor."

"Who? Is it Artemis?" the voice responded, edged with panic. I realized it's coming from the speakers, though I can't recognize it.

"Yes." Cisco replied flatly, still typing uncontrollably at the computers, "But she can't stay."

"No! I actually could use her help right now!" the voice protested, "Let her stay!"

"No!" Dr. Wells grumbled, reaching over and turning off the speakers, "Ms. Van Kleiss, you need to go home. _Now_."

"What - was that Barry?" I asked, finally placing the owner of that voice, "Is he in trouble? Is everything okay?"

Dr. Wells grew more aggravated by my questions.

"It's none of your concern. Why are you here, anyway?" He asked, blatantly annoyed by my presence.

"I already told you - I got your stupid call, and nobody told me what was happening, so I assumed the worst!" I snapped, getting just as angry, "What's happening to Barry? Is he caught up with Rajeet?" I asked, moving over to see what's going on on the computers.

"No!" Cisco argued, stepping forward to stop me before I could see what was happening on the monitors. Barry's voice could be heard yelling through the earpieces.

"I can help! Where's the Shocker? Do the police have it?" I argued.

"Artemis, you can't be here right now!" Cisco urged kindly, though I can tell my presence is making him worry.

"Why not? I work here!" I shouted, "Is Barry in trouble?"

"Barry's - Barry's with the police, and yes, they're trying to catch Rajeet," Caitlin explained gently, clearly afraid of letting me see what's going on.

"Cisco, get her out of here _now_!" Dr. Wells demanded, stressed out by both the situation on the computers and by my presence. Caitlin gave Barry more orders about where to act.

"Why is Barry even _at_ the scene? He works CSI!"

"Artemis, you -"

"Why'd you shut down the screens?" I questioned, remembering how Cisco turned off all of the monitors when I entered, "What are you doing that I'm not allowed to see? What are you all hiding?"

"Cisco, I swear to God if you _don't_ her out of here..." Dr. Wells growled threateningly. I threw him a cross look. Dr. Wells said he had high hopes for me, and that he wanted me to work for him. What were they doing right now that I wasn't allowed to be a part of?

"Artemis, I'm sorry we woke you up," Cisco apologized, pulling out a set of car keys from the pockets of his jeans and pressing them into my hands, "You weren't supposed to see this. Please go, and I promise we'll have answers for you in the morning."

"I don't care about being woken up," I declared, "I want to know what's going on!"

"This isn't the time for that!" Dr. Wells shouted. Beside him, Caitlin looked flustered as she typed something on one of the screens.

"Cisco - I really could use your help right now," she requested, giving Cisco a pleading look. Cisco turned back to face me, and gave me an apologetic look. At this moment, I am confused and extremely angry. _Why wouldn't they let me help them?_

"Artemis, _go_ ," Cisco asserted, squeezing my hand warmly, before turning me away, "We'll tell you everything in the morning. But right now, we _really_ can't have you here."

Tears involuntarily fringed my eyes, and I turned around and stormed off, giving Dr. Wells an unforgivingly menacing glare before I left.

"Why was she even _added_ to the notification circle?" He roared. Cisco and Caitlin answered with weak apologies.

"She's just a scientist here, you understand? I do **not** want her as a part of _this_ team!" was the last thing I heard Dr. Wells yell before I exited the Lab, the doors being locked from the inside to prevent me from entering again.


	8. A Rather Difficult Morning

The next morning, I woke up extremely cranky.

I could barely sleep after witnessing _Operation: Exclude Artemis_ at STAR Labs, and spent much of the night pondering what the hell they were all up to, and why Dr. Wells had believed I was too inept to help. What the hell - even _Barry_ had asked to let me stay, and Barry was the one they all seemed to be helping!

Why _was_ Barry there?

Barry had told me that despite working at CCPD, he was only involved with CSI-related tasks. He seemed too cheery, gentle and careful to be delving into the gritty, dangerous and fast-paced work of a cop.

Caitlin and Cisco had been warning him to be careful, to watch out for the metahuman.

He must've run into Rajeet on his way home?

At 2 in the morning?

I didn't buy it.

Or - Barry did say he lived with his foster father, Joe, who was a detective. Maybe Barry was simply accustomed to tagging alongside Joe while Joe was on duty?

Was that it?

Why wasn't _Joe_ the one turning to STAR Labs for help, then? Or the Chief of Police? Why _Barry_ , of all people?

Nothing I postulated seem to make sense - something was missing, a key detail, something Dr. Wells didn't want me to know.

 _"She's just a scientist here, you understand? I do not want her as a part of this team!" _

What could he have meant by that? Cisco, Caitlin and himself were scientists as well.

Weren't we already a team?

But something told me he was referring to their work last night. And Barry was involved. Whatever it was - I wouldn't be allowed to be a part of it.

Fine, I concluded. If Dr. Wells was going to be a prick about this, then I would too. I'd insist on it until I got my way in. I too would be revered just as much as my associates in his eyes. I too would be deemed just as necessary as they were. They can't have me build tech without letting me see how they used it.

 _Why bother causing trouble?_ The logical side of my conscience argued. You signed a contract before you began working. You get to keep your job, you still get an above average salary. Let them play their little games behind your back. You're not losing anything.

No, I conceded. This wasn't how it would work. You can't wake me up in the middle of the night only to ask me to go back home, that I'm not allowed to see what you're doing. I wouldn't be abused like that.

It's all or nothing, Wells...

I took a shower to calm my nerves, which was ineffective, so I decided to watch something on TV to distract my edgy mind.

Flipping the remote on for the first time, my television opened up to the Channel 52 News. A news reporter was speaking.

 _"how the Red Streak had saved dozens of lives from a metahuman robbery last night, and had paralyzed the telekinetic attacker by stealing a weapon from STAR Labs. Footage from last night showed our hero donned in red, shooting what appeared to be electric waves at our villain, dubbing his metahuman powers useless. Authorities, however, are still unsure if STAR Labs knew about the theft, and -"_

What the -

The Red Streak had been the one using the Shocker?

But Cisco told me the police had it...

Questions raced through my mind, and I gruffed, angry with how last night played out. Dr. Wells had a lot of explaining to do...

I left my apartment ready for work, but decided to stop by Jitters in hopes that a fresh warm drink would be a last resort in soothing my anger. Barry was walking towards me and the restaurant as well, dressed in a black sports coat and jeans.

"Hey," he said, smiling kindly, holding the door open for me.

"Hi," I said harshly, pushing past him. _Don't blow up at him, Van Kleiss. He did nothing wrong here. Don't let your anger out at him._

"I - Is everything okay?" Barry asked, looking concerned.

"I don't know, Allen. Do I _look_ like everything's okay?" I snapped.

"Well, actually, you look great," Barry mused. I had arrived dressed in a new full-sleeved beige dress that fell to my knees, paired with simple black heels. His comment caught me off guard, and I blushed in face of my bad mood.

"Thanks. Sorry for the attitude."

"No problem. Nothing a little coffee can't fix, am I right?" Barry joked, brushing a hand on my shoulder as we walked to the counter. He must have assumed I was mad about my lack of sleep. I had actually called Barry when I got home from STAR Labs last night, but 3 am isn't exactly the time for inquisitive phone calls, especially not when you're in the middle of a metahuman attack. (Or so I had assumed.) I was actually grateful to have run into Barry now - maybe I could finally get some answers as to what happened last night.

We quickly ordered, then sat down at a table to eat. Iris joined us later on.

"Hey! Did you two watch the news this morning?" She asked enthusiastically.

"No?" Barry responded.

"I did," I answered, "The Red Streak used a weapon _I_ built to take down a metahuman."

Barry and Iris both turned to me.

"Wait - you built that thing?" Iris exclaimed, "That thing stopped the metahuman from hurting people!"

"Really now? I wouldn't know. STAR Labs didn't let me catch any of the action," I stated sourly, before facing Barry, "Did you see him last night?"

"Who? The Streak? Or the other metahuman?" Barry asked innocently.

"Either one of them. You were there, weren't you?" I asked.

"Where?" Barry asked.

"Last night, where the metahuman attacked. What was his name, Arjeet?"

"Rajeet. I was, initially, but I was unexpectedly separated from the police at some point. And no, I didn't see the Streak."

"Who had the Shocker?" I questioned.

"What?" Barry responded.

"The Shocker? The big gun with the purple lightning bolts painted on the sides. The one I showed you yesterday," I reminded in a flat, unamused voice, "Who had it?"

Barry gave me a look of confusion.

"I - I don't know. I didn't see it."

I nodded my head at him, before turning back to finish my coffee, still annoyed with my lack of information. Iris had been watching our exchange in silence the entire time.

"What were you two discussing just now?" She asked. I then realized she must've been totally lost for the entire conversation - despite being Joe's daughter and Eddie's girlfriend, she wasn't shared much information about police cases.

"Details of the attack last night. Sorry we can't tell you more," Barry answered.

"Oh, don't _worry_ , Iris. I'm on the same boat as you," I assured her, irritation dripping in my voice, "I know exactly what it feels like - to not have those closest to you share important information."

"Look, I'm sorry if you're upset," Barry interjected sympathetically, "But I'm not -"

 _KROOOSH!_

Whatever Barry was about to say was interrupted by a booming explosion outside the restaurant. The three of us, as well as everyone else, turned to see what it was. It appeared someone had thrown a car across the street. Outside, people were panicking. Instinctively, I ran out of my seat and to the door, pushing it open and yelling for pedestrians and others to come inside the restaurant where it was safe. Barry and Iris caught up with me, and people poured into Jitters. Vibrations trembled through the ground as something moved towards us from the left. We turned and saw a strange-looking man, wearing a helmet and goggles and a silvery coat, laughing maniacally, standing amid the rubble as civilians ran past him to the safety of the shops and restaurants.

"Where is he?" the figure demanded, "Where is the one they call the _Red Streak_?"

Instinctively, I ran out of the restaurant towards him, but was pulled back by something. I turned and saw Barry giving me a scared look, with a tight grip on my arm.

"What are you doing?" he asked, trying to yank me back. I tried to jerk my hand out of his hold, but to no avail, as I was unable to counter Barry's firm strength.

"He wants the Streak, I'll get him the Streak," I commented easily, though I had no idea what that meant. I was still struggling to free myself from Barry, but by now, he got me back in Jitter's doorway, and effortlessly handed me off to Iris.

"Make sure she doesn't leave. She's just as reckless as you are," Barry asserted, and Iris nodded at him solemnly, though she loosened her hold on my arm.

 _KROOOSH!_

The man in silver stomped a huge boot on the ground, creating huge tremors that knocked cars over to their sides, with huge rips in the road.

Barry turned around and pushed Iris and me back into Jitters, before looking around.

"Barry, what are you doing?" Iris asked, stepping forward to cling onto her stepbrother.

"I'm not sure. Stay here. Both of you," and with that, Barry ran down the sidewalk, in the same direction as the man sending off earthquakes.

"Barry, where are you going?!" I shouted, leaving Jitters and stepping out onto the sidewalk to watch him.

Barry's nowhere to be seen. Where on Earth did he go?

Across the street, a small boy is huddled up by the side of a car. Another quake passed by, causing me to stumble, and the car shook violently, nearly flipping over to its side where it would topple over the child. My heart stops at the sight of the innocent child - he can't be older than 3 years old - and has nobody to protect him. Without thinking, I ran onto the street, ignoring Iris' protests, staggering as the metahuman stomped more earthquakes, each soon after the last. The boy tried to crawl underneath the car, but I made my way over to him through the tremors, and pulled him out.

"Well, well well, what do we have here?" The metahuman asked delightedly as he noticed us, the sunlight glinting on his shiny outfit. The child is hiding his head in my neck, crying softly, and I wrapped my arms closer around him as I tried to devise a plan to safety. On the other side of the road, Iris has stepped out of the restaurant as well, and looked to me and the child with pure fear. She bent down and picked up a piece of rubble. _Iris, no!_

"Poor Mama. Poor, poor mama," the metahuman mused, creating more earthquakes as he moved closer to us. I picked the boy up and stepped away from the car - right in the middle of the street, directly in the metahuman's line of attack. Not exactly the best safety plan.

"I've always enjoyed eating dead families for breakfast!" The metahuman said with a crazy laugh. Fear hindered any rational decision I could otherwise make easily, and the adrenaline only made me want to pee myself. The child was wailing loudly on my shoulder now, and the best I can come up is backing away from our foe, until a rock threw itself at the man's head.

"Oh yeah?" Iris shouted, "Well, try vegan dieting! Artemis - _run_!"

I'm grateful for her idiocy, though I hope she stayed safe. I have no way to help her, though, so I turned and ran, only to snag my foot in a tear of concrete that must've cut itself out during one of the quakes, and fall forward - landing hard onto my closed arms, one hand instinctively backing the child's head.

My arms ache - badly - but I spied an open furniture store and got up onto my scraped knees, pushing the child out of my arms. I point to the furniture store, and the child registered my silent command, and ran as fast as his little legs could carry him into the store, dutifully closing the door behind him.

I wasn't one to run, however - not with this lunatic terrorizing the city. I turned and saw him walking towards Iris. _No!_

Iris had nowhere to go, and I let out an unearthly cry as I ran and rammed my shoulder right into the metahuman, causing him to yelp as he fell over.

"You okay?" I asked Iris, though now my shoulder ached terribly and my arms felt like jelly from my fall. My knees hurt too, but I forced myself to brace the pain.

Iris nodded, then widened her eyes as she screamed. Strong hands grasped my ankles with cold fingers, and my head painfully hit the concrete as my feet were pulled out from under me.

"She's either very brave," the metahuman lulled as he rose one booted foot towards me, "Or very, _very_ stupid."

I closed my eyes and waited for the metahuman to stomp his foot and kill me with an earthquake, but instead felt a gust of wind rip over my body, followed by the sound of a painful _thwack_ , my feet being dropped right after.

I dared myself to look and saw the Red Streak standing before me, the metahuman's body lying twenty feet or so away. The Streak turned towards me, and held out a vibrating hand to help me up.

"Took you long enough," I muttered, as I rose to my feet. The Streak didn't reply, and instead pushed me towards the sidewalk, nearly knocking me into Iris. Iris caught me, though, and we both looked at the Streak in amazement.

"Find safety," he ordered, his voice echoing within his throat, making it seem as if several people are speaking at once, "Now!"

Iris was startled by his command, and roped one arm around me as we ran down the sidewalk, looking for someplace we could hide. Near the end of the street, the metahuman rose again, this time, facing the Streak. The Streak braced himself to run into him.

"So nice of you to join us, Streaky!" The man declared with a laugh, brushing away dirt from his ugly metallic sleeves. The Streak dashed into him, and the two broke out into a fight, light tremors rushing through the ground below. Iris broke open a high window to a legal office, shattering it completely, and climbed inside.

"Artemis, come on!" She yelled, and I tried to force myself up onto the window ledge, but my arm was in no condition to support my weight, and I winced painfully.

"Iris - I can't!" I cried. Iris gave me a fearful look and held her arms out to me.

"No, you have to! Come on!" but before I could try again, a stronger earthquake wove through the ground below, knocking Iris off of the table she must have been standing on.

"Iris!" I shouted, but I had no way of making sure whether or not she was okay. There's no response, and the earthquakes are making it impossible to stand up properly. I turned around, and saw the Streak still engaged in combat with the metahuman, though the Streak is losing by a long shot, unable to get off of his knees as he was dealt immense punches by his opponent.

"Heheh! I do love a little shake-out before going to work!" The metahuman menaced, with his back to me completely. This has to end, I thought, as I spied a long metal beam fallen among the debris. An idea clicked in my brain, and I ran towards the beam, pulling it out of the mess. It's almost 5 feet long, and solid metal from head to toe. Before I can allow my arm to weaken again, or my conscience to get the better of me, I turned and ran towards the metahuman, and gripped the beam with both hands as I brought it crashing down on his head. The metahuman froze, and before I could even register whether or not my blow had knocked the metahuman out, the Streak rose from the ground, and picked him up by the shoulders, and ran off with him, a cloud of dust forming as he zoomed away.

Behind me, a small crowd cheered, and I thought I saw several phones being held up at me as people thronged out of the shops and restaurants and onto the destroyed street. The little boy I had saved earlier was in the arms of a woman who was crying tears of joy as she made eye contact with me.

 _Iris,_ I remembered, and ran back towards the brick building I last saw her in. The entrance is more or less destroyed, and I start panicking about how I could possibly find her, and more importantly _save_ her, when she appeared around the corner of the building, gripping her forehead, having left the ally beside it. I shivered with joy at seeing her again, and ran to her, enveloping her in a surprise hug. Taken aback, she returned the hug before pulling away and holding me at arm's length.

"You, girl, are my new hero," she stated, smiling proudly. I grinned, but winced - Iris had her hand right on my shoulder, which I had rammed into the metahuman.

We stood there, awashed in gratefulness that the other was safe, when we both realized someone was missing.

"Where's Barry?" I asked, astonished at the fact that we both had forgotten about him. The last I had seen of him was him running away as he tried to keep Iris and me contained in the restaurant.

"Don't know," Iris responded, disturbed by his disappearance as well, "Let's go find him."

When we faced the street again, the entire block is crowded with people trying to find their friends and family amid the destroyed cars and ripped concrete. Police cars have arrived at the scene, and Eddie appeared out of the mob, running towards Iris. He pulled her into a loving hug and kissed her forehead.

"Thank God you're okay," he exclaimed, wiping her bangs away from her eyes, "What happened here?"

Before Iris could answer, Eddie faced me and widened his eyes at me in shock.

"Holy shit, Artemis. Are you okay?"

"What?" I asked, looking down at myself. My new dress is covered in dirt and pebbles, with an ugly rip at the knee, and I lost my shoes a long way back when I was trying to recover the child. Blood is streaked across my sleeves, though I am far more worried about the searing pain in the back of my head, which resulted from my head-on collision with the asphalt, and the unignorable jolt in my shoulder.

"This is nothing," I joked, "It's not as bad as it looks. We're looking for Barry."

"Barry?" Eddie asked, not looking away from my arms.

"Yeah. We lost him around the same time the wacko earthquaking metahuman showed up," Iris explained, "And Artemis tried to help an exposed child before the Streak arrived."

"Wait - the Streak is responsible for this mess?" Eddie asked in disbelief.

"The other metahuman was. I can give you a description of him later - I got a good close-up of him," I added, "The Streak took him down and ran off with him."

"Don't be so humble," Iris mused, "He helped _you_ take him down."

"What?" Eddie asked, confused.

"Iris!" Detective Joe yelled as he joined us. Iris broke free from Eddie's embrace to clasp her arms around her father.

"Are you two safe?" Joe asked.

"I am. Artemis might need to go see a doctor." Iris said, as her father turned his attention to me, gaping at my condition.

"I'm not the one you need to be concerned about right now," I stated, "Barry went missing, and we can't find him."

"Don't worry about him. He's the one who called us over here. He's fine," Joe assured. Eddie, Iris and I gave him looks of confusion.

"Okay, well, we need to stake out what happened here. STAR Labs is just as surprised about this as we are. We've got to make sure everyone's safe," Eddie described.

STAR Labs, I scoffed. My favorite place in the world.

"Everyone's fine, Eddie," Iris responded, "And we owe that to Artemis. You really should have seen her. She's totally fearless."

I ignored her comment, and crossed my arms as I faced Eddie. Iris excused herself to go assess the damage back at Jitters, and Joe left to go help the civilians. A second officer joined Eddie and I, and Eddie explained to him how I became involved in the scene.

"What did you see? And how did you get so banged up?" the officer asked, pulling out a small notepad and pen.

"Well, it all started when a crazy quaking metahuman threatened to terrorize everyone if the Streak didn't show up..." I said with a smile. I told them about Barry telling Iris and me to stay indoors before he disappeared, about how I had seen a young toddler alone on the street, and my mishap of an attempt to rescue him before he'd be done away with. I also told him how Iris and I managed to distract the metahuman, before the metahuman pulled me off of my feet and threatened to kill me, and how the Streak arrived just in time. Iris and I had tried to find safety, but I couldn't follow after her because of my arm, and how I had made that split second decision to blow a crowbar atop the metahuman's head as he was distracted by the Streak, and how the Streak ran off with him seconds later.

"Wow. I normally don't say this to people, but that was very heroic of you, even if it was equally idiotic," the officer asserted, "The child owes you his life."

In the background, the said boy smiled and waved at me, as his mother made a phone call, gripping his other hand. I smiled back at him.

"Well, thank you both for your time," I responded, "You know where to find me if you've got any more questions. Do let me know if you find anything."

"Roger that," Eddie responded, and I turned away from them to go greet my new friend.

"Hey, little guy!" I swooned, as I got down on one scratched knee to be able to talk to the boy face to face. The boy blushed and hid behind his mother's leg. The mother ended her call and scooped her son up. I rose to greet her.

"Hi," I said, involuntarily holding a hand out to her, "Your son is very adorable. He got himself into quite the scramble earlier."

The mother smiled graciously at me, and her son buried his head in her shoulder, still smiling shyly. Instead of taking my hand, the woman wrapped her free arm around me in a makeshift hug.

"I can't thank you enough for what you did," she moaned, sniffling back tears, "I don't know how he got separated from me, but you saved his life. Thank you _so,_ so much."

"It's really not a problem. There was no way I could've stayed behind and watched him get hurt," I assured, reaching up to tickle the boy under his chin, "What's your name, kiddo?"

The child giggled and pulled away from me.

"It's okay," the mother whispered, smiling at his reaction, "Tell her your name, Theo."

"Theodowe," the child murmured, blushing once again at me.

"Theodore? Very gorgeous name," I gushed, giving the mother a supportive smile, "You stay out of trouble, okay, Theodore? You had your mother and I very worried." I said, wagging a finger at the child. The boy chortled, and I nodded at the mother before walking away.

"Wait - what's your name?" The mother called out, several people turning around to watch, "At least give me something to tell him when he's older and remembers this!"

Before I could answer, a bolt of lightning passed through the crowd, with a crimson man at its head, running to the end of the street where he disappeared.

"It's the Scarlet Speedster!" someone cried out.

"The Crimson Comet!"

"The Streak! He's back!"

I turned and watched the horizon where he had vanished, waiting for him to reappear. Nothing. He had just bolted through the street, without due reason.

As I'm about turn away, a second gust of wind passed in the opposite direction of the street, indicating that we are in the speedster's presence once again. This time, though, I am gently pushed back towards the sidewalk. In my hands appeared a bunch of red roses encased in cellophane, a white silk ribbon tying them all together at their stems.

"What?" I asked, wondering where the flowers could have come from. Murmurs elicited through townspeople who noticed my confusion at my new ...gift.

It then strikes me that the Red Streak must have given me the roses.

Before I could say or do something to react, another squall of wind blasts through the street, followed by a bolt of yellow lightning, only this time, it hooks around and turns to run right into me.

I let out an inhumanly shriek, and closed my eyes as air ripped past me. I dared myself to open my eyes, and saw the city morph into one giant gray/blue blur, and grimaced, because the Streak was carrying me and had my shoulder pressed into his chest. Before I could look up at his masked face, I was dropped off on a grassy lawn, and just like that, the speedster ran off into the city and disappeared. I recognized the area immediately, seeing STAR Labs' auxiliary towers two blocks or so away in the distance.

I really gotta stop getting myself tangled up in these metahuman attacks, I thought, before I noticed a small notecard tucked into the ribbon of the roses. I pull it out, and turned it over to read what it said. A message was handwritten in neat, sharp letters.

 _Thanks for the help :)_

The note is signed with an encircled bolt of lightning penned under the message.

The Red Streak had the courtesy to thank me with a bouquet of two dozen red roses.

Dr. Wells wasn't the only one who had explaining to do...

###

"The Red Streak gave me flowers," I announced, walking barefoot into the Cortex, holding the roses up before dropping them onto a table. Dr. Wells and Cisco are the only ones in the room, and both looked up at me, their gazes quickly turning horrified as they took in my appearance.

"What happened to you this morning?" Cisco gasped, and I know I must look horrible - walking into STAR Labs in a dirty, ruined dress, with bloody scratches everywhere, barefoot too, to top it all off. I shrugged apathetically.

"Sorry I'm late. The traffic this morning was horrible," I said sarcastically, "You both owe me answers."

"We owe _you_ answers? Why don't you tell us why you look like you just survived World War Z?" Cisco countered, still giving me that look of concern. Dr. Wells watched me expressionlessly.

"I was at Jitters, and a metahuman attacked, so I took it upon myself to save those in need." I answered calmly, "Including the Streak himself."

"Well that's... interesting..." Cisco muttered, knitting his eyebrows together at me. A door opened to our right, and Caitlin exited the medical labs, removing her gloves. She froze when she saw me, and immediately gasped in horror.

"Oh my god - Artemis, _what happened_?" She asked in shock.

"A stupid metahu - wait - is that _Barry_?" I inquired, completely ignoring her question as I spotted a familiar figure seated at the gurney behind the lab windows. I brushed right past her and pushed open the door to the lab, leaving my associates outside. The door swung shut behind me.

"Barry!" I gasped, walking over to him. He turned and looked at me with a bruised face.

"Oh my god... Are you okay?" I asked, stepping in front of him. He gave a single, expressionless nod and immediately dropped eye contact. I slowly raised one of my hands and put it to the side of his face, carefully lifting his jaw up until he looked at me again. His bottom lip is busted, and there are bruises adorning his usually plain cheeks. A large purple welt has found home above one of his eyebrows, and there's a rosy bruise about his neck. Each wound is covered in a clear ointment that I know Caitlin must have applied.

"Did the metahuman do this to you?" I inquired in a quiet voice, though I already know the answer. Barry gave a quick shaky nod before looking away again.

"Can you talk?" I asked. Stupidity washed through me after he nodded and gave a weak smile.

Why hadn't I noticed him back on First Street? Where could he have gone that I managed to miss him? How did this happen?

A weakness broke out within me, and I felt terrible for letting this happen to him.

How could I have so caught up in playing the hero that I had failed to look after my own _friend_?

I cautiously wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him into an apologetic hug. Surprised, he returned the embrace. He held me close, with my head resting against his shoulder.

"I'm sorry," I finally broke out in a hoarse voice, as we pulled away from each other.

"What do you have to be sorry for?" He asked quietly, finally speaking up as he gave me a solemn look. I dropped my arms from around his shoulders, but he caught them in his hands.

"I shouldn't have let this happen to you," I said, trying my best to keep my voice even.

 _My_ fault. This was _my_ fault. I was foolish enough to let Barry run off - right into the face of danger. I could've stopped him from getting hurt like this.

"Hey," Barry called in a kind voice, bowing his head to look me in the eye, "What on earth are you talking about?"

"You - you ran off, and I didn't stop you," I said, my voice cracking, "If I did, you could've been safe, and this might not have happened."

"No," Barry answered, lifting my chin up with a bent finger, "You're not responsible for _anything_. I'm okay. Promise. It's not as bad as it looks."

"See, but here's a little secret - I say the same _exact_ thing whenever _I'm_ bent up and bruised," I replied, attempting a smirk, "So I know _you're_ lying now as well."

Barry dropped his hands from my face and sighed, though he had a content look on his face.

"Well, I may have been knocked out and out of sight, but I _did_ hear what was going on," he explained, raising an eyebrow at me. He gently placed his hands on my forearms "And you've got quite a few tricks up your sleeves."

"Oh, don't worry," I joked nonchalantly, "I've got bruises up my sleeves too."

Barry looked puzzled for a second, before dropping his gaze to my hands, which were on his knees. He inhaled quickly at the sight of the mauve-colored blood stains embellishing my tan sleeves, and quickly got off the bed and walked towards the door, pulling me by the hand behind him.

"Dr. Snow?" He called out, opening the door into the Cortex, "You've got another patient today."

For an added effect, he held my arm up and pulled my sleeve down, revealing a nasty gash that must be 4 or 5 inches long. Through the window, I can see Cisco raise an eyebrow and turn two shades lighter, and Caitlin immediately dropped her things and quickly made her way back to the medical lab.

Dr. Wells was the only one who showed no reaction to my wound.

"Thank you, Barry," Caitlin greeted, before quickly pushing him out into the Cortex and closing the door behind him before he could react.

"H-hi, Caitlin."

"Hello, Artemis," Caitlin responded confidently, as she flipped a light switch that flooded the room in white light, and quickly dropped the blinds over the windows, concealing us from the men. She pulled out an extra set of clothing and white flipflops from a small cabinet before reaching for her medical supplies on an adjacent table.

"Now, you're in _slightly_ worse condition than Barry was..." she crooned as she set out bottles of various tablets and liquids along with tools I am unfamiliar with, "Mind if I clean you up a bit?"

###

In roughly half an hour or so, Caitlin has washed every cut and scrape on my body, and lathered me up with different kinds of medicines, salves and ointments. She bandaged up my shoulder and the long cut on my arm, and rubbed a special liquid onto my sore bruises, and has applied something to a cut on the back of my head, where I had hit the pavement. According to her, I had been bleeding there without even knowing. Several bloodied medical wipes proved her to be telling the truth.

"Thank you so much, Caitlin," I stated as Caitlin put her things back. Caitlin had offered me a fresh set of her own extra clothes which she kept at the lab so I could change out of my ruined dress. I'm now dressed in my own STAR Labs t-shirt, and in a sweater and jeans that are both a little too big for me. I'm not one to complain, though.

"No problem, Artemis," she mused, as she washed her hands at the sink, "Anything else you'd like for me to handle?"

"Do you offer counseling services as well?" I joked.

She turned around and faced me in seriousness, "I don't see why not? What's bothering you?"

The fact that she was actually willing to listen to me kind of threw me off, but again, I was overridden with appreciation for my doctor friend.

"To be blatantly honest," I started, though I'm not sure how to continue. Was it even a good idea to talk with her about this? Caitlin was biting her lower lip nervously, and was watching me expectantly.

The woman just gave you a set of her own clothes, Artemis, and literally just washed out all of your stupid bruises that you weren't even willing to get treated.

You can definitely trust her.

"Please don't have me arrested or thrown into prison, or anything," I tried. Caitlin looked addled by my words, "But I think Dr. Wells is forcing you and Cisco to keep secrets from me."

Guilt and confusion suddenly lit through her eyes.

"Actually, your reaction just changed my mind. Now, I _know_ Dr. Wells is forcing you and Cisco to keep secrets from me," I affirmed, "What's up with that? What's going on here that I'm not allowed to see? And what _was_ that last night?!"

"Artemis," Caitlin began, rubbing her hands anxiously, "This lab is... a pretty complicated place... to put it lightly. Yes, Dr. Wells is keeping secrets from you, but really - it's for your own safety."

I guessed I was giving her a cross look, because she smiled before she continued.

"Hey - it's nothing personal. He was like that with me and Cisco too. Just... Just give him a few weeks to get used to having you here, and before you know it, you'll be involved with the same projects as the rest of us," she quipped hopefully.

"Why is Barry always here?" I questioned, "And why were you guys talking to him last night during the metahuman attack?"

"Well," Caitlin paused and contemplated for a second, before answering me, "The only way I can put it is that Barry looks up to Dr. Wells pretty much like a father. Dr. Wells saved his life after the particle accelerator blew up. And - you know - he is pretty good friends with me and Cisco. If I was Barry, it would only make sense to spend time here often."

That actually made a lot of sense. I felt foolish for thinking STAR Labs was a bad place. I was being nosy and irrational.

But Caitlin had completely ignored my second question.

"What was happening last night? When I showed up?"

"That was an emergency," Caitlin quickly replied, "The police had the gun you and Cisco made, and weren't sure of how to use it, so naturally, they kept in contact with us."

"But you were talking to Barry."

"What?"

"Last night," I repeated, "You weren't talking to a police officer. You were talking to Barry Allen. A crime scene investigator. Not a cop. And I don't know much about what it's like working with a police department, but I know that CSI's visit the crime scene _after_ the crime, not when it's happening. That's a cop's job."

Caitlin gave me a blank look, unable to answer. I remembered something else - something Barry had told me earlier.

"Caitlin, Barry said he didn't even know where the Shocker _was_. And the news this morning said the Red Streak had it," I continued, "So mind telling me what was really going on? Or are you going to keep lying?"

I felt bad for taking advantage of Caitlin like this, but I knew I wouldn't get anywhere with Dr. Wells or even Cisco.

Barry? What was there to say about Barry? He was just their friend, a CSI guy, caught in the middle of the action. He had nothing to do with any of this.

"Caitlin, why were you talking to Barry instead of the Chief of Police, or a detective, or a lieutenant? Why Barry - of all people? That's all I'm asking."

She gulped, before responding in a shaky voice.

"Because, Artemis, Barry is important to this lab in ways I could not tell you," she explained, her voice soon turning dry, "And we all care for him deeply. If you have a problem with us trying to look after someone we care about, then no amount of medicine can help you."

With that, she speed-walked out of the lab, leaving me alone in the medical lab.

"Wait, Caitlin! That's not what I meant!" I cried, chasing after her. She was with Cisco at a computer now, and gave me a helpless, but stern, look.

"Then ask Dr. Wells. I don't know what else I could tell you."

I mumbled an apology to her, and swore to myself I wouldn't confront her like that again. Caitlin was a good person. It was Dr. Wells who was putting her up to this.

"Then where is he?" I inquired.

"He's in his office," Cisco responded, gesturing to a closed door in the Cortex. I thanked him, and stormed off in that direction, ignoring his protests.

"No, Artemis! You can't just barge in! They're discussing something important!"

I was about to throw the door open, but stopped when I heard the voices conversing inside.

"-wants to keep working here, then we _have_ to tell her soon." Barry pleaded quietly, "She risked her life out there. We can't put her to that again."

"Barry, I won't hear of it. To tell her the truth would mean putting her in immense danger. You know how her parents died," Dr. Wells asked, though he doesn't sound particularly concerned, "What if she's next?"

"My mother was killed the same way, Dr. Wells, and I'm fine," Barry argued.

"Are you?" Dr. Wells questioned, "Are you really? Can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me Artemis can stay safe the same way you can?"

Silence.

What did Dr. Wells mean - the same way you can? _You know how her parents died. What if she's next?_ Was someone going to kill me?! Was - was the Red Streak evil?!

"No. No, she can't," Barry finally responded, "But either way, she's in danger. And she has to know."

 _What?_ How was Barry "safer" than I was? What was I in danger of?

"Mr. Allen, you are not the one who gets to decide that."

"After seeing what she did today, I think I am."

"Barry -"

"No. I'm not going to let her endanger herself when she has no need to. I-"

"What _is_ it that I'm in danger of?" I demanded, pushing the door open and stepping inside Dr. Wells' office.

"Ms. Van Kleiss! How _rude_!" Dr. Wells raged, pounding his hands on the table in frustration, as if it will get him out of his wheelchair, like he could strangle me with his bare hands.

The thought made me laugh silently.

In your _dreams,_ grandpa.

Barry turned in his chair and faced me, giving me a confused look.

"How much did you hear?" he asked calmly, though he is surprised.

"Just enough," I answered coolly, enjoying how my vagueness irritated Dr. Wells, "So how is it you're safer than me? Could I get some or it? And who wants to kill me? Other than Dr. Wells - that is."

Barry rose from his chair. I held a hand up for him to stop, and closed the door behind me with my other hand.

"No - stay," I commanded, gesturing towards the chair. Barry turned and reluctantly sat down again.

"Actually, this is just perfect," Dr. Wells mused in a raspy voice, "I needed to talk to you as well."

" _I_ get to be the one asking questions here, not you, old man," I criticized. Barry threw me a disturbed glance, as if he's unnerved by how I insulted my boss. I don't care.

"Why were you talking to him last night? And why didn't you want me there?" I demanded, looking right into Dr. Wells' eyes so he is unable to look away.

"Easy. He was entangled in the metahuman attack," Dr. Wells assured, leaning back in his wheelchair.

"So why didn't you just tell me that last night? Why'd you have to keep it a secret from me?"

"You would ask too many questions. Just as you are doing right now."

"I actually wouldn't. I understood that you were all in a stressful situation. I'd have tried to help. Barry _wanted_ me to stay and help. There's something you're hiding from me."

"And what would that be?" Dr. Wells mused.

"Do _not_ play games with me," I exclaimed, leaning forward, "You're hiding something from me here. Something you don't want for me to know. Yesterday, I had asked you to not keep secrets from me, and you obliged."

"I did no such thing."

His reply threw me off, as I knew it was true, and I glared at him.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, it's a matter of your own safety. If I'm keeping something from you, you have to trust it's for your own well-being."

"How is not knowing what I'm in danger of going to keep me safer?!"

"Ms. Van Kleiss, I -"

"Barry," I interrupted, confronting my friend, "You don't even work here, yet you know more than I do. You've been here a lot longer than I have. What _is_ it that's going on here that supposedly could get me killed?"

Barry mulled over my question, and rose again before responding.

"I disagree with your logic, Dr. Wells. At this point, I see the truth not as something that would endanger her, but something that would actually protect her. This is between you and Wells now," He said, getting up to push his chair in, "Our opinions on the matter may differ, Dr. Wells, but facts are facts, and we all saw what happened out there. If something like today happens to her again, I promise you right now I will not hesitate to tell her what's really going on here."

And with that, Barry left the office, leaving me alone with Dr. Wells. _What? Barry knew what was happening here?_

Dr. Wells cleared his throat to get my attention and I turned back to face him.

"Now, if you're done making a fool of yourself, Ms. Van Kleiss..."

"What do you want?" I snarled, scowling at him.

"For you to learn some manners," he replied, smiling harshly through his glasses, "You are no longer a full-time employee of the lab. You won't need to come back in until next week. You can go home, and think about how you've been acting. If you come back before then, you do so on the pain of arrest and termination from your position as an engineer here."

" _What?!_ " I shouted, getting up from my chair, "What on earth - you can't do that!"

"As your employer, I have full right to do so," He mused, adjusting his glasses as he enjoyed my shock, "Don't worry - it won't affect your salary. I figured keeping you away from the lab would be a bigger punishment than simply shaving a few bucks off of your snack money."

I stared at him in disbelief. Did he really think I was that shallow? He couldn't do this!

"And you should consider yourself lucky. Most employers would fire you on the spot for your lack of discipline. I'm willing to overlook that, and give you a warning instead." he said, his eyes gleaming madly.

I frowned at him, but I had no words to counter him.

"And Ms. Van Kleiss, I apologize for how things have been playing out lately," Dr. Wells added, "But suspicion is not your friend. You'll have to trust me on this. And please - don't ask questions whose answers you aren't prepared to hear. I'll see you next Tuesday."

How Harrison Wells managed to unravel me with a few stabs of words - I could never know, but I left his office, infuriated, and grabbed my flowers off of the table, turning away to leave.

"Woah - Artemis!" Barry called out, running in front of me to stop me, "What happened?"

"Harrison Wells is being a prick. He thinks I'm too immature and nosy to work here," I replied in a surly voice.

Barry seemed flustered by my respond.

"Well - did you try talking to him? Maybe he could -"

"You're all hiding something from me. That much is clear now," I stated, turning to address the three of them. After overhearing the conversation in Dr. Wells' office, I knew Barry was in on it too now.

"And I don't know how to feel about working someplace where secrets that _could get me hurt_ are kept from me."

"Artemis, it's not that we don't want for you to know," Cisco assured in an apologetic voice, "It's for your own safety."

"For my _safety_?! Cisco, do you even _know_ what happened to me this morning on my way to work?!" I responded, keeping my voice calm, "I gave up _any_ self-concern to try and stop a metahuman. At this point, I would _hope_ you understand that I value the safety of others more than my own. If you're working to stop metahumans behind my back, then you should know I'd be _more_ than willing to help you. It's why I chose to work here!"

Cisco had been effectively silenced by my words, and his gaze fell to the table. I felt bad for being so condescending, but I needed to get a point across. _I_ was to be taken seriously, and I was taking _my work_ seriously. I wouldn't be undermined because of a petty concern for my well-being.

"Who gave you those?" Caitlin asked, eyeing the roses in my hand.

"I - I think the Streak did," I explained, pulling out the note from inside the folds of the ribbon to give to her.

"The Streak did?" She questioned, knitting her eyebrows as she read the inscription.

"Yup. At least s _omeone_ appreciates me trying to help," I retorted. Caitlin looked up at me with a blank expression, and handed the note back to me.

"What, um, what are you going to do with them?" Cisco asked nervously.

"Beats me. I'll probably just stick them in a vase and use them for decoration?" I replied.

"You're not going to use them to try and run a DNA scan or anything like that?" Cisco inquired, still edgy.

"A DNA scan? What - to like, find out his identity?" I questioned. Cisco tensed.

"That never occurred to me, actually," I murmured, taking in the possibility of knowing who the man behind the mask is.

Cisco and Caitlin froze, and watched me take a wiff of the roses.

"I don't think I will, actually." I answered, after thinking about it for a while.

"Oh... Good," Cisco answered, before turning fretful again, "I mean, oh. Why?"

Why was he acting so strange?

"Because I don't know how effective a DNA scan would be, anyway. I think he was wearing gloves." I said, finally turning to Barry, who had been watching me with worry, arms crossed over his chest. I handed him the note, "You could try and see what it comes up with, but I'm not too interested in knowing who the Streak is, honestly."

"You're not?" Caitlin asked, "I mean - that's good thing. I've heard that the Streak is very dangerous. You wouldn't want to, um, get on his bad side."

"Really? Because yesterday, you told me he wasn't real," I remarked, " _Now_ you're telling me he's a threat?"

Caitlin tensed again, and I can tell I've hit a chord. Something is off about her inconsistency, about the conversation Barry had with Dr. Wells.

"STAR Labs is keeping secrets from me about the Streak," I murmured, "Astounding."

It all made sense now. The Streak had been at the attack last night - the news report said _he_ had been the one using the Shocker - and Dr. Wells had made me leave. And today, Barry was telling Dr. Wells to tell me the truth about STAR Labs.

STAR Labs was somehow involved with the Streak!

Caitlin and Cisco widened their eyes at me in shock, only proving that I made the right conclusion.

"But I honestly don't think he's dangerous. Not yet, anyway. He seems like he's trying to help... And I don't know much about him, but if keeping things that way will ensure he can do his job, then I wouldn't want to know who, or what, he is, anyway."

Caitlin and Cisco seemed to relax, and nodded at each other.

"However, I _do_ know that you all are hiding something very important from me. But I'll figure it out," I threatened, before snatching the note out of Barry's hands, "Give me that back. It's mine."

Barry looked lost, as if he's got something he wanted to say, but couldn't figure out the right words.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?" I muttered. Barry looked away from me, and faced Caitlin and Cisco.

"You guys are _working_ with the Streak?! Unbelievable!" He exclaimed in astonishment.

"What - you didn't know either?!" I asked, taken aback by Barry's shocked reaction.

"No! I didn't!" He declared, shaking his head disapprovingly at our friends before muttering, "Abso _lute_ ly heartbreaking. I can't believe you guys."

"But Barry, you don't have any proof," Caitlin brought up weakly, a small smile playing on her lips.

"Yeah, dude. You can't just make an accusation like that," Cisco added, smiling knowingly at his friend.

Why were they smiling? They had been lying to Barry, and they thought it was funny? _Disgraceful!_

"I won't hear of it," Barry said, turning to put his arm around me, "Come on, Artemis. Let's get out of here... Working with the Streak - that's insane."

"And untrue!" Cisco called out. I gave him a skeptical look.

"Whatever. You're right, bro," I agreed, "Let's get out of here."

"Wait a minute - _bro_?!" Cisco exclaimed. Barry and I turned around to see him looking at us in disbelief.

"Barry, you've been brotherzoned. Rest in peace, potential relationship."

Barry gave me a wounded look and pouted. I arched an eyebrow up at him.

"What? You can't blame _me,"_ I said casually, "I'm not going to try starting something with someone who's busy pining away for a certain _Iris West_."

Barry seemed shocked by my words, and his bruised cheeks bloomed with a hot pink blush.

"That was _coooold_ , Artemis," Caitlin remarked, though she smiled. She looked entertained by the tension I just unnecessarily created between myself and Barry.

"I _still_ ship it," Cisco asserted, taking a sip of a drink he pulled out of nowhere, clearly enjoying the shock on Barry's face.

I saluted the three of them, and left them in the Cortex as I walked out.

Yup. Today was definitely one of the strangest days of my life.


	9. Metahumans and Mysteries

Despite the fact that it wasn't even noon yet, I was exhausted.

The second I got home, I plopped impotently down onto my couch, and screamed as loud as I could into one of the cushions.

Dr. Wells had kicked me out of STAR Labs for an _entire_ week.

Dr. Wells was telling Cisco and Caitlin, and even _Barry_ , to keep secrets from me about the Streak.

Dr. Wells was lying to me.

Dr. Wells claimed to know that something would kill me, and chose not to tell me, because he thought it was for my best.

Dr. Wells.

Dr. Wells.

Dr. Harrison flipping Wells.

I couldn't understand _why_ he was doing this. What did he have against _me_? I thought he respected me, and even cared for me! He was the one responsible for the roof over my head - for the very sofa I was lying on! Dr. Wells was the kindest man I had ever met - up until last night!

Didn't he see how much I loved STAR Labs? How compatible I was with the team? What had I done wrong, other than show up to the lab when I received the group call about Rajeet's attack?

Moments like these, when I felt lied to, betrayed, helpless, were the ones when I missed my parents the most.

The two were strong advocates of working together, and would most likely have frowned upon Dr. Wells' senseless behavior. He wasn't the same man who was once their friend...

I had actually met Harrison Wells once or twice as a child, each instance being very short, and I'm not sure if it is because of the memory being worn down and faded with the passage of time, or whether my perception as a child distorted reality, but he had been very ... different... back then.

The first time we met was when my parents brought me with them to a special conference for Harvard alumni. It must have been a class reunion, or a banquet, or some similar type of event, because the Harrison Wells who had approached my family _then_ couldn't stop smiling, couldn't stop gawking at what an "adorable" family we were, couldn't stop laughing over fond college memories with my parents, both of whom had told me he was a good friend. _That_ Harrison Wells was energetic, peppy, excitable, maybe even a tad bit goofy.

The next time we had met him was at our home, and he had brought a friend - a beautiful shy, blonde woman named Tess Morgan. They came to congratulate my parents on their astounding scientific discoveries and the success of their laboratories, and to invite them as business partners to the laboratory he was planning on opening with his fiancee, Tess, in a small urban town named Central City.

The death of Tess Morgan must have truly been a scarring loss, because the Harrison Wells I knew now was _nothing_ like the one I had met earlier in my life, and the wheelchair wasn't the only difference. Dr. Wells had turned reticent and sour, and had lost his easygoing luster, his cheery demeanor. His smile, or what I remembered of it as a child, had been bright, genuine, and provoked smiles and easiness among others. Now, it seemed strained, cold, and forced.

I wondered how my parents would react to seeing how much their colleague had changed, and how bitter he had become. More so, how would they have reacted to finding out he had put me on probation from visiting his lab soely because I walked in on a secret operation?

Was I being too hard on him? He had lost the love of his life, and his lab - his life's work - had backfired on him, dubbing him a disgraced scientist, a martyr in the science world, even.

Of course, that didn't give him _any_ excuse to be rude to me.

He wasn't the only one who had suffered tragedy - my father was mysteriously killed the night he received a Nobel prize, and I lost my mother only a week later. If he expected me to show him sympathy for the loss of his former love and his reputation, then he was equally responsible for his actions and should accept the consequences of forcing me out of his lab.

Couldn't he see that I only wanted to help him? I was _obsessed_ with science, and had only dreamed of using my knowledge to benefit the world. Getting a job at STAR Labs was a dream come true. Heck, Harrison Wells _himself_ had been an idol of mine growing up - his advancements in the world of chemistry and physics were eye-opening, and held great promise for the world - that is, until the particle accelerator exploded, and he decided to act like a complete sourpuss around me.

 _Enough_ , I chastised myself.

He's only human, and he never expected you to show up last night. Whatever he was doing with Cisco and Caitlin - and Barry - saved lives. Wasn't that enough?

And - maybe - an apology would be in order. You _were_ yelling at him in front of his own coworkers, and he _is_ your employer. Last night might not have made sense, but disrespecting him wouldn't get you anywhere.

I concluded that I'd try to fix the damage I had created in my relationship with Dr. Wells, that I'd find a way to earn back his respect for me, but I would not forgive him for keeping secrets from me.

So... secrets...

For starters, Dr. Wells said that the Cosmic Treadmill was an old failed invention?

If it was old, then why was it spotless? Not a drop of dust on it anywhere - it was obvious enough it had been recently used. _Desired speed and input?_ What on _earth_ could those terms mean? It didn't make sense to me about why Dr. Wells would keep an old mistake a secret from me, when everyone already knew the particle accelerator's explosion was his fault...

And the Red Streak... Was STAR Labs really working with him? The news report said he had used the Shocker - he stole it from STAR Labs. And Dr. Wells was forcing Cisco and Caitlin to lie to me about him. All three of them said it was to keep me safe... Was it true then? That the Streak really did mean to kill me? That he was the same demon from the night my mother died?

 _Two dozen red roses and a handwritten thank-you note..._

Why would he give me flowers, then, if he was going to kill me? Not just any flowers - red roses, an infamous symbol of love, nonetheless. And go out of his way to thank me for helping him? Either the Streak had fallen in love at first sight with me, or something was _definitely_ up.

Maybe I should _have_ asked Barry to try and run a DNA test on the note...

Though I had only seen the Streak twice, he didn't exactly strike me as a malevolent being. Both times, he had shown up to take down other metahumans who were threatening the city. And Iris' blog was full of other similar accounts. She had secretly confessed to me that he had spoken to her. Though the last part seemed a bit stretched, Iris didn't seem like an untrustworthy person. She believed the Streak was a secret guardian angel - a being that watched over the city and kept everyone safe.

If this was so, then why was Dr. Wells keeping the truth from me?

And for some strange reason, I couldn't quite figure Barry Allen out either. Sure, the guy was as nice as could be, and we got along fine, but something just bugged me about him. Waking up from a nine-month long coma, his body should have withered away, and there should have been some lasting after-effects on his brain.

In truth? Tall, kind, smart, attractive - he was the _last_ person you'd suspect of having gone through something so horrible. He was built like an Olympian athlete, and struck me as someone just as smart, maybe even smarter, than Caitlin or Cisco. Not that I wished ill upon him, but his recovery was _nothing_ like that of the usual coma survivor. It must have been one hell of an interesting coma for him to wake up almost a year later with no visible setbacks.

His coma recovery wasn't the only facet that boggled me.

Something about his relationship with STAR Labs seemed off, as well. Caitlin and Cisco may be his best friends, but I still believed he was there a little too often for comfort. _I report to STAR Labs when we need tech to take down metahumans_ , he had told me on my first day in town, when I came in for my interview. I hadn't seen _any_ reporting, to be honest. Cisco had brought up Rajeet through news reports and with information from the police database.

Maybe he's just hanging out? For fun?

Behind closed doors with Dr. Wells and Caitlin?

Go screw yourself, Artemis. Caitlin was his doctor, and there was that whole aspect of patient confidentiality.

 _Yeah, sure_. Confidentiality from you, because Dr. Wells totally seemed in on everything that didn't involve you.

And I still knew nothing about why STAR Labs only had two employees before I came along. What happened to them?

In truth, I felt guilty for being so suspicious of my new surroundings, but Dr. Wells was definitely hiding something from me, and the Streak was involved. Also, Barry was weird, even though he was the most normal one around.

I set the Streak's roses in a vase on my dinner table, and spent the rest of the day trying not to mope, which didn't really work out.

Thanks to Dr. Wells, I was now shunned from the lab and probably seen as an inferior scientist, and Wells himself - one of my former heroes - most likely detested my nosiness, and would keep me farther away.

Later that day, Caitlin and Cisco both called to check in on me, and gave me the same old nonsense about Dr. Wells "not being used to me yet", "hasn't built trust between me", and how "he has your best intentions at heart."

I thanked them for their compassion, and hung up, after Caitlin insisted they would come in and visit me later during the week.

The next day, I decided to pig out and overloaded myself on junk food to eat away my worries, and spent all day watching television - something I had not allowed myself to do since before high school.

Right when I was totally engrossed in a scientific documentary, the doorbell rang. Being a little snob, I chose to ignore it but it sounded again. Several small voices could be heard outside.

I sighed and left my couch to look through the peephole. Outside, Detectives Joe and Eddie were waiting, along with Iris and Barry. Eddie was holding a small bouquet of flowers.

"Maybe we should stop by later, Dad," I heard Iris murmur quietly, "She might not be feeling well after yesterday."

"We won't stay long," Eddie assured her, "We'll just give her a quick thank-you and be on our way."

"Besides, she's young and lives all alone," Joe added, "Someone's gotta make sure she's alright. She seemed pretty roughed up yesterday."

Aww, they came to check up on me, I realized, and opened the door for them.

"Hi! How are all of you?" I asked, trying to hide the stress from yesterday's events from my voice.

"We're all well," Joe responded with a polite laugh, "But _we_ should really be the ones asking how _you_ are."

I couldn't help but smile at their surprise kindness.

"I'm doing great, actually. Just killing time at home, doing nothing," I answered, unsure of what else to say. We all stood there for an awkward moment of silence.

"Do you want to go to the movies with us?" Barry blurted out of the blue, surprising Joe, Eddie and Iris, "I mean - Eddie, Iris and I were planning on heading over to the theater later, but you should come with us. Might be fun."

The trio turned around and gave him looks of surprise, which quickly changed to agreement. Iris nodded her head at him before turning to face me with her signature sunny smile.

"That's actually a great idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that," she added, knitting her eyebrows in self-disappointment before smiling again "Artemis, if you're feeling fine, come with us."

"I'm fine with it," Eddie added with half of a shrug, smiling casually at me, "What do you say?"

"Sure, why not?" I replied, seeing no harm in the offer, "When?"

"Like - half an hour," Eddie answered, "Sorry if it's a bit of a short notice."

I gave them a light laugh.

"Umm, could you wait just five or so minutes? I've got something in the oven," I asked, stepping aside so the group could enter, "Why don't you come on in? I promise it won't take too long."

Joe thanked me and entered first, followed by Iris, Barry, and finally Eddie, who handed me a small but tidy bouquet of flowers.

"These are on behalf of the police department. For what you did yesterday. Captain Singh insisted," Eddie admitted sheepishly.

I took them from him and smiled.

"I mean, I was hoping to get the key to the city, but flowers are fine too," I joked, grateful I was on good terms with the police. I thanked him and Joe again and asking them to give my regards to whoever Captain Singh was.

The group settled down in my living room, and I excused myself to finish up what I had waiting in the kitchen.

"Need any help?" Barry asked, putting his hands in his jacket pocket as he followed me.

"No," I answered, pulling a tray of freshly-baked cookies out of the oven with mitted hands.

"Now, you're not going to eat all of those by yourself, are you?" he asked with a casual grin, leaning in towards me.

"Absolutely not," I answered, turning away from him to grab a few plates from a cabinet, "I always make sure to keep a ready supply of junk food for surprise guests such as yourself. For some _strange_ reason though, it's all been disappearing slowly each day," I added, giving Barry a knowing smile.

"I'd call it theft, but you gave Cisco full permission to take whatever he wanted from your kitchen, so it's kind of your own fault," he said, giving me a lingering smile.

"The things I do for friendship," I muttered mockingly, handing him a plate and gesturing towards the tray.

Barry threw me one last smile before putting nearly half of the batch in his plate. He threw a whole cookie in his mouth and curled his mouth in an impressed grin as he chewed.

"These are great!" He exclaimed with a full mouth. He took more bites, and I couldn't help but laugh. I was about to scold him and tell him to leave some for Iris, Eddie and Joe, but then I noticed something was terribly off about him.

Just yesterday, Barry had been the most beat-up and injured person I had ever seen. Scars and cuts adorned his face as if they would stay there forever.

Now, he looked perfectly normal - back to his immaculate, handsome complexion, as if I had imagined him injured.

"Barry, I don't mean to be rude, but where are your scars?" I asked, slightly horrified, "And your bruises? From yesterday? How did you heal so quickly?"

"Hmm?"

I stepped forward, reaching my hand up to angle his jawline so I could see either side of his face. I ignored the bewildered look he was giving me, and studied each cheek. He was perfectly fine. Not so much as a scar or a nick to prove yesterday has happened.

Barry pulled my hand down from his chin and swallowed.

"So, umm, I've got a little secret that nobody but Caitlin, Cisco and Dr. Wells know about," he began slowly, looking rather uncertain.

I studied him dubiously. _'Little secret'?_

"What do you mean?" I replied, taken aback, watching his green eyes flicker as he stood in silence, cookie in hand.

"Please don't tell anyone - especially Iris, especially Eddie. They'll never let this go. Joe already knows, though."

"What are you going on about?" I asked, narrowing my eyes at him, "Wait, is this the big secret Dr. Wells doesn't want me to kno-"

"Concealer."

" _What?"_

"There's a little makeup boutique at Central Street Mall, and they sell this amazing concealer that hides every blemish and pimple, and it turns out - it works on bruises and scars too," Barry conceded, looking kind of ashamed, "Iris is never going to let me live it down if she finds out."

"You're keeping a secret about wearing makeup?" I gasped with a small laugh, pulling my hand away, "Well, do tell me what concealer you're using. I hate wearing jackets in the summer."

Phew. It was just makeup. I actually felt a little ridiculous, thinking those scars could've gone away so soon on their own. Barry Allen was perfectly normal.

"I actually can't do that," he replied, snatching a few more cookies off of the tray, "If I sell my beauty secrets to everyone, I won't stand out anymore."

"Are you serious?" I asked again, with a laugh. Nevermind - this kid was still just as weird as anyone else.

I brought the tray of cookies to my living room, where Eddie, Iris and Joe were seated, and passed out the plates.

"Cookies?! No wonder it smells like heaven in here," Eddie retorted, helping himself to a few. Iris and Joe followed in his example.

"Sorry there aren't that many left. Barry practically inhaled like half of the batch the second they left the oven," I joked, raising an eyebrow at Barry. He gave me a sad smile and shrugged.

"I don't blame him. These taste amazing," Joe conceded, munching on one, "Artemis, you didn't need to do this for us."

"Joe, you know I don't mind," I answered. The detective smiled at me.

"So, any word on the metahuman from yesterday morning?" I asked.

I realized I shouldn't have, because everyone in the room, save for Iris, became discomforted.

"No. _You_ were the last person who saw him, actually," Joe answered with a sigh.

"Really?"

"Joe's right. Each eye witness said they saw you beat him with that crowbar before the Flash disappeared with him," Eddie added.

"The _what_ disappeared with him?"

"The Flash," Iris responded, giving a small smile as she tucked her hair behind her ear, "It's what I'm calling the Streak now. Thought it sounded better."

"Huh... The Flash. Yeah, it does sound better, actually," I wondered out loud. The Flash seemed more accurate - the being was more of a flash of light than he was a streak of lightning. To be honest, though, it kind of reminded me of someone jumping out and flashing at bypassers, but I dismissed my immaturity with an appreciative smile at Iris.

"Not bad, West."

Iris beamed at me.

"Not bad?" Barry asked, obviously offended by my casualness, "I think it sounds _great._ "

"Well, why are you taking it so personally?" I joked. He had reacted a little too fast for comfort. Maybe it's just because I had undermined his crush.

My smile melted as I remembered something else, and I interrupted Barry.

"What about Smoke Ghost - sorry, Andrew Thompson? Have we found him yet?"

"No, we haven't seen him in a while either." Joe said with a sigh, "That's two missing metahumans."

"Three, if you count the speedster," Eddie added.

Three undocumented metahumans on the loose. I couldn't help but wonder if there were others as well.

What if the yellow speedster who killed my mother was here too? What if he was in hiding, and nobody knew about him?

I shuddered at the thought of it. I prayed it wasn't true.

"Going back to the subject of Artemis and people doing nice things," Iris began, changing the topic - something I'm almost grateful for, "Why don't you tell who got you those flowers?" Iris questioned with a dramatic tease to her voice, pointing to the flowers on my dinner table.

"Oh, Eddie delivered those to me. They're from the police department," I said with disregard, my voice trailing off. I had given the wrong answer, and Iris is unsatisfied by my answer.

"Really? Because I was talking about the big red roses in the vase, and I'd be a bit worried if _those_ were from Eddie," she retorted, winking at her boyfriend, "So fess up. Who is he?"

"He... isn't real," I said, though I could feel my cheeks blushing like mad. Iris and Eddie raised eyebrows at me.

"I got them for myself," I justified, giving the group a fake smile.

Joe made a sound that was between a snort and a laugh.

"Don't need to be a licensed detective to know _that's_ a lie," remarked, before finishing off his cookies.

"Come on, you don't need to hide anything from us," Eddie added, giving me an easy, assuring smile, "Are you seeing someone?"

"No!" I assured, though I wasn't sure why I felt so vulnerable. I had never been a good liar, and Barry, who knew who they were really from, gave me a small smile.

Eddie's eyes darted between me and Barry, and recognition lit in his eyes.

"Well, now I can't help but notice that you and Barry ar-"

"Look, why don't you guys wait here for me?" I interjected, giving Eddie a sly smile, "Unless you want me to go to the movies with you in my nerd pajamas?"

Eddie fell silent and waved me off, rolling his eyes at me, and Barry raised an eyebrow as he stole Iris' last cookie.

I closed the door to my room and changed into a knee length dress, then grimaced as I saw myself in that mirror. The huge red scars across my arms mimicked the bloody gashes they had been yesterday morning, and my knees don't fare any better. Despite the summer heat, I slipped on a jacket over my scarred arms and leggings over my scratched legs, shoved my feet into old sneakers, and left my room.

Iris and Eddie had picked up the plates from my living room, and were smiling as they talked quietly with each other, lost in their conversation.

I found the scene absolutely adorable, except for the fact that they were at my kitchen sink, rinsing the plates of crumbs.

"Woah, woah woah!" I called out, forcing them to turn their attention to me, "What do you think you're doing? You can't be doing my chores. Out of my kitchen - now!"

"Artemis, it's not a big deal," Iris giggled, as I grabbed her and Eddie by their rolled up sleeves, and pulled them into my living room.

"How come you let Barry help but not us?" Eddie objected, with a light scolding tone to his voice, though he was smiling at my gesture.

"You thought I was helping?" Barry asked incredulously, "I had cookies to devour."

"And a lack of manners, apparently," Joe brought up, "We came here to check up on her and instead she ended up treating us."

"Oh, don't worry, Dad," Iris assured, putting her hand on my shoulder, "That's why we're bringing her with us to the movies? Now, are we actually going to go, or are we just going to kill time here?"

Barry grabbed one last cookie, and Eddie mumbled an apology, and soon, we had left my apartment and were all piled up in Eddie's car. We dropped Joe off at his home, and Eddie drove us over to a movie complex crowded with teens and couples.

"So, what are we watching?" I asked, as we got in line for tickets. A bright poster for Space Destroyers III was posted above the queue, and I felt my stomach fill with excited nervousness. I was actually a huge fan of the series, and had been anticipating the third installment for months now.

"We're watching _With Love, from Venice_ ," Iris answered, turning to smile at me. I slowly tore my gaze from the poster to her face.

"You're kidding, right?" I retorted.

"No?" She responded, her smile slowly melting as she shook her head, confused.

I could feel the color drain from my face. There was no way in hell I would sit through a R-rated flimsy, airheaded romance and sacrifice _Space Destroyers_ for this.

Okay - the R-rated flimsy romance movie I could handle - maybe - but definitely not with two men watching with us.

Iris, for such a sharp-minded young woman, how on _Earth_ did you manage to overlook how awkward this would be?

"Well, that's fine," I lied, shrugging and smiling at Iris and Eddie, both of whom are looking at me with worried faces. Eddie's look lingered for a few seconds after Iris looked away, and his eyes are tinged with panic - it's a silent cry for help, I realized with an amused smile. He doesn't want to watch a stupid love story any more than I do.

I gave the poster over our heads one last, sad look.

"I'll come back for you, Alir," I murmured, recalling the last line of the previous movie - a promise the protagonist had made to rescue his best friend who sacrificed himself.

"You're a _Space Destroyers_ fan too?!" Barry exclaimed beside me, his eyes lighting with a comforting joy.

"Like you would not believe, dude," I said with an easy laugh, "I have both of the previous movies memorized by heart."

"Same. I've been trying to get Iris into it too, but she just _can't_ get the storyline," Barry replied, rolling his eyes with a reluctant smile towards Iris and Eddie.

"Well, it's not for everyone," I agreed. The line slowly inched forward, and I can't help but feel awkward for my situation.

"If you're a true Space Destroyers fan, then why the hell are we in line for a stupid chick flick?" I taunted Barry.

"Because," Barry answered, "Joe asked me to make sure they actually go to the movies this time instead of running off to god knows where."

"Your stepdad forced you to go thirdwheeling?"

"Yeah."

"And you invited me because...?"

Barry tilted his head towards me and smiled politely.

"Becaaauuuseee you told me I could bring you along for when I'm forced to tag along with those two. Remember Operation Fourth Wheel?" Barry reminded me, hanging his elbow off of my shoulder, "And I am going to _use_ you to get out of that theater."

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"See, you only get to 'use' me like that if _I_ get something out of it," I quipped, though I liked his idea.

"Got anything that could pass as an escape plan?" he asked.

"I don't know - I've been told I can fake seizures really well?"

"What?!" Barry asked in an amused gasp, before continuing mockingly, "No, no - save that for later. I feel like that'll come in handy in more dire situations."

I laughed at his words.

"What kind of situation would require me to fake a seizure?"

"Why would you fake a seizure?" Iris asked, turning around to give us an alarmed look.

"I - I, umm, in case I can't have a real one?" I attempted, cringing at my ridiculous excuse.

Iris gave me a cross, confused look, and Eddie nodded his head with a small smile, seemingly impressed.

"Nice work, Van Kleiss," Barry whispered.

I gently punched him in the arm and we paid for our tickets to _With Love, From Venice_ , and after buying overpriced snacks, we waited in yet another line for the usher to take our tickets. I sighed and tried to push down any envy I felt for the hoards of nerds geeking out about potential endings for the new Destroyers movie.

"It's okay - I'm a huge fan too," Eddie murmured beside me.

"Really now?" I asked.

"You kidding? That cliffhanger in the last movie can't keep anyone away," he whispered with a wistful smile.

"So, that makes three of us who are about to watch the wrong movie," I teased, "How on _Earth_ did Iris manage to trap us all like this?"

Iris and Barry were having their own conversation a few feet in front of us, but she turned and smiled when she heard her name.

"Magic," she responded, turning to face Barry, "This was supposed to be a date night, but somehow _this one_ decided to come too, and now we've ensnared you with us."

"And now we're doomed to sit through two hours of Chad Pitt faking an Italian accent," Barry complained.

"Barry, quit whining. You're the one who asked to come," Iris scolded, as we found our seats in the theater.

The trio easily settled in, and I found myself seated between Barry and Eddie. I suddenly recalled how quickly a scene as peaceful as this could turn into an episode of panic if a metahuman decided to drop by.

"So, forgive my naivety, but what happens if a metahuman decides to pop in while we're watching the movie?" I implored, "I mean, I want us to have a good time, but metahumans have attacked like three times since I moved in, and it's literally been, like, only six days."

"God pray that the Flash takes him down," Iris contended, munching on her popcorn, "I've been waiting for this movie for weeks."

"Guys - I'm serious." I pushed, "A small, cramped theater is _not_ the most escapable place if something happens. We're a room full of victims."

"So long as _you're_ here to beat them up again for us, we'll be fine," Eddie joked, "Just relax. It won't happen."

I gruffed, but obeyed Eddie. Didn't they get how much potential danger we were in? How could they be so sure we were safe?

What if - what if the yellow speedster showed up?

Barry sat down beside me, and leaned in towards me.

"Hey," he whispered, "It hasn't been the easiest week in the world for you, I'll admit that. But don't worry. We're safe."

"What - does the theater have a special metahuman security force on standby in case Andrew Thompson - or someone worse - decides to barge in?" I mocked, "We're sitting ducks, Barry."

He shook his head and put a hand gently on my wrist, giving it a gentle, reassuring squeeze.

"Just have a little faith in the Flash, alright?" he asked, with a small, reassuring smile. My fear quelled a little, but of course, it's too strong for its own good.

"What if he's not there? What if we just got lucky those other times when he _did_ show up?"

"Then - then just have a little faith in me, instead?"

"Why? Are you going to, like, protect me, or something?" I asked, trying to hide a disbelieving laugh.

"If the situation came up, yes. Yes, I would."

I tried to imagine one of the side doors exploding, and some scary metahuman monster prancing in, people panicking around us with the movie playing in the background. Tall, skinny Barry would play hero, and try to fight the metahuman, with me cowering behind him.

My mind couldn't wrap around the image.

Truth be told - I could imagine it with a lot more ease if Barry and I had switched roles, and if I was his protector.

"Barry?"

"Mmm?"

"You're a dork."

I saw a smile appear on his face in the light of the theater screen.

"Thanks."

Someone shushed us, and I sighed. Previews rolled for other cheesy romance flicks, and the feature finally came on - depicting a geeky, but pretty, blonde woman, played by Olivia Childe, discussing a move to Venice on the phone. I rolled my eyes and accepted my fate watching this latest installment of Typical Romance Movie, until about fifteen minutes in, I realized I had eaten all of my popcorn and finished my drink. To my right, Eddie was looking bored and unamused.

"Hey Eddie?" I whispered.

"Yeah?"

"Can I have your drink? If you don't want to finish it?"

Eddie gave a half shrug and handed me his container, the contents completely untouched. The movie on the screen passed, and the young woman finally moved to Venice, and was struggling in adjusting to life there, until Chad Pitt - sorry, Romeo - arrived, and offered to help.

I sighed once more, and sank in my seat as the plot continued. This movie had no allure to me, and was completely corny. I continued sipping Eddie's drink to distract myself. Barry looked as if he could fall asleep at any moment, and Eddie seemed just as disinterested as I was. Out of the four of us, only Iris appeared to be invested in the movie. Onscreen, Romeo has finally managed to woo the American immigrant, and has whisked her off to what is probably his bedroom. That soon already?

This isn't something I want to watch with two men seated on either side of me.

Actually, this isn't something I want to watch _period._

I tapped Barry's arm, startling him of any drowsiness.

"Can I fake my seizure now?" I hissed.

"What?"

"We should leave. _Now_ ," I whispered sternly. On the movie screen, the camera zoomed in as Chad Pitt peeled off his shirt, focusing on his perfect abs. Barry cringed.

"Yeah, let's go," he agreed, leaning across from me to get Eddie's attention, "Hey - we're getting more snacks. We'll be right back."

Eddie nodded at us pitifully, and we took it as our cue to exit the theater, just as the nude, smoochy, awkward stuff ensued on screen.

"We're not actually going back, right?" I asked with a nervous laugh, once we had left the theater behind us and found ourselves in the lobby.

"No. No we aren't," Barry answered with a dutiful nod.

"Yeah, well, I honestly wouldn't have minded a metahuman attack back in there."

"Hey," he called, giving me his cool grin, "Who said Iris gets to have all the fun tonight? You get us some more popcorn - I've got something to do."

And with that, Barry turned and left me in the lobby with a request for more popcorn. I rolled my eyes in exasperation for how anticlimatic tonight was playing out, and sat down at a table with my refilled large bucket of popcorn, when Barry returned a few minutes later.

"Awesome. Ready to go back?" He asked, gesturing with a thumb towards the theater we just left.

"Not really," I said, slumping down onto the table, "I'd rather just sit here than let my brain rot with that garbage."

"That's what I was hoping you'd say," Barry said, smiling brighter at me. He pulled me up by the arm, "Come on."

"Barry - what?"

Barry took me to a different wing of the theater, swarmed with another crowd of moviegoers, and handed the usher two tickets.

"You two enjoy your date," the usher stated, ripping the tickets in half and handing the stubs back to us.

"Oh - we're not dating," Barry responded quickly.

"Yeah - this is just a friendly get-together," I added with a nervous laugh. Barry and I looked at each other, and gulped unanimously. Awkward.

The usher raised an eyebrow at us questioningly, not buying it, and Barry took the stubs from him, and led me to down the hall.

"Please tell me we're not -"

"We are." Barry interrupted in seriousness, before breaking into a huge smile and holding up the ticket stubs. _Space Destroyers III - 9:30 pm_ was printed across the top. I widened my eyes and grabbed Barry's wrists and squealed, and Barry chuckled like a small excited child.

"Thank me later - we need to see if Alir lives or not," Barry cajoled, tenderly putting his arm around my back onto my other arm as we walked into the theater. I was all too aware of the gesture, and I guess he was too, because neither of us spoke, and he dropped his arm a minute or so later when we found seats.

"Do you think Mica's going to die?" I asked enthusiastically, as we shared the giant bucket of popcorn between us.

"Nah. I'd say it's Roe we gotta worry about here," he said with a snicker. I rubbed my hands together excitedly as the movie began, and the night completely turned around from there. Barry and I were both transfixed onto the screen, cheering quietly as our heroes won their battles, not blinking during the suspenseful scenes where they found there was a spy in their midst, unable to pull away as the main characters found themselves on a destroyed planet inhabited by robots. A sneak attack by enemy bounty hunters lands one of the protagonists a crucial injury, and everyone watches in horror as his brother found his mangled body amid burning ruins.

 _"Roe..."_

 _"Alir - I have to tell you something,"_

 _"Say nothing, brother."_

 _"Roe - you don't understand,"_ Alir pleaded tragically as he gasped for breath. He held up his forearm and pulled down his sleeve - revealing an intricate black tattoo that signifies his alliance with the enemy Destroyers.

" _ **I** was the spy_ ," Alir declared, breaking into a pained sob.

The entire theater gasped with shock at the heartbreaking revelation, and beside me, Barry's shoulders slump down dramatically. Astonishment is printed all over his face, and it appeared as if his eyes were about to water.

"Awww - are you going to cry?" I taunted in a playful whisper. Barry turned to me and wiped at his eyes quickly.

"No. No, I'm not crying," he whispered, his voice slightly breaking.

I smiled and rubbed his shoulder supportively.

"It's alright," I murmured sarcastically, "All Space Destroyers have to die, anyway."

My words have their intended effect on Barry. He turned to me, the white of his eyes tinged with red, and worry on his face.

"Artemis - are you serious?" He hissed, clearly aggravated, "Alir is the most innocent one of them all, and now he's dying _and_ working with the Destroyers?!"

I chuckled and squeezed his shoulder.

"I'm kidding - you're just easy to mess with," I consented, and truth be told - my heart was broken with Alir's confession too. We all watched as Roe swore revenge on the Destroyers, and he and his friends left on a quest to recover some lost artifact, and the movie concluded with a great battle, in which the main characters barely managed to win, and the movie ended again with yet another thrilling cliffhanger - the Space Destroyers promising to destroy Quadrant 247, where Earth was located.

The movie did a good job of making me feel better about my falling out with Dr. Wells, and Barry was all smiles as we got up to leave.

"Oh, man. Did you see how they found that FireStriker back there?" He asked excitedly.

"Okay - the FireStriker was nothing. When the Destroyers brought in those airborne attacks - that was the real deal!"

Barry and I continued to geek out over the film, discussing/debating the best and worst parts like middle schoolers, when we saw Iris and Eddie seated at one of the tables in the lobby, looking impatient and annoyed.

"Uh oh," I murmured with a wince, "They...don't look happy."

In our excitement for Space Destroyers, we had completely forgotten we had arrived with our friends, and had been expected to be with them. Their movie must've ended long ago. God knows how long they must have had to wait.

Barry's smile melted, but was slowly replaced with yet another as we approached our companions.

"Hey guys!" He ventured cautiously, "So, uhh, how was your movie?"

"I can't believe you guys left to go watch Space Destroyers," Iris scolded.

"Without me!" Eddie added in desperation.

Iris turned and gave him an angry look of disbelief.

"What?" He protested, "No offense, but the movie sucked. I only watched it because you asked me too."

"Oh, Eddie! Not you too!" Iris moaned, broken-hearted, "This was supposed to be a fun night, and instead, you both left without telling us and were gone for about two hours, and now, Eddie, you're telling me you didn't even have any fun."

"I - sorry, Iris. This is all on me," I stated weakly, willing to take the blame if it meant she'd feel better, "I just really couldn't stand that movie."

"Did Roe die?" Eddie asked.

Iris faced him once more, clearly upset, and stood up to walk away.

"Hey! -" Barry dissented, catching her by the arm to stop her, and stepping right in front of her to force her to look at him. She turned her face away, still upset, and Barry tilted her chin up with his forefinger, giving her a warm, loving smile.

The action both melted my heart from how kind and heartfelt it was, but also crushed me, reminding me of how Barry had always been playful or easy around me - never this emotional or particularly caring.

"I'm sorry," he murmured apologetically. Iris still looked upset.

"Would ice cream make up for it?" He asked, bowing his head to make eye contact, giving her a perky, almost sexy, smile. Iris grinned in spite of herself, and put her hand to his wrist, which was still cupping her chin.

"I don't know, but it wouldn't hurt to try," and with that, she slinked her arm around Barry's waist, and he put his over her shoulders, and the two of them walked towards the ice cream bar in the snack area.

I turned and looked to Eddie. He seemed wounded - insulted almost - but he didn't say anything.

"So, um," I began, "Are we just going to let him walk away with her, or -"

"No. Let's go," Eddie asserted, and we followed a few feet behind Iris and Barry, in awkward silence, watching as the two joked around with each other, clearly at ease.

Barry loved Iris - that much I could tell, seeing how his eyes lit up differently when he was around her, when he fell a little bit quieter as he listened to her speak, admiring her.

Iris, in turn, was just as helpless around him - the way she protested when he teased her, how their small touches suddenly seemed intimate and delicate. There was definitely a spark between these two - one that Iris was miraculously too blind to see.

I honestly couldn't tell if Barry was the unwanted third wheel in the trio, or if it was Eddie.

Beside me, Eddie cleared his throat a little too loudly. Iris and Barry turned to face him, and Iris smiled gorgeously as she stepped away from Barry with her ice cream, and held a spoon up to Eddie's mouth. Eddie smiled at her, and relented, accepting the bite. I watched as he pulled her into a hug, and how she laughed in his arms as he tried apologizing to her once more.

Barry finally acknowledged me, and walked over to me.

"Artemis, would you like some ice cream too?" He asked gently, giving me a smaller and less bright version of the smile he had given Iris.

"No thanks," I replied, my morale nosediving, "I've had a lot of junk food tonight."

Barry had brought me along only so he wouldn't be third-wheeling by himself.

That was the deal we had made.

I came and helped with that - I had _given_ him permission to use me like that, nonetheless - in the hopes that we could spend some time together. We had indeed, but in the end, he'd always love Iris.

I was just a pawn, used to make things less awkward around her.

"Are you sure?" Barry asked again, "I mean, I definitely owe you for saving my butt back there."

Then again, I remembered I did tell him _I_ didn't want to start anything with him, yesterday at STAR Labs. Part of this was my own fault.

"I didn't do it for you," I lied, giving him a dry smile, "I did it to see _Space Destroyers._ "

"Of course," Barry replied with a smile, scratching the back of his head. The situation suddenly intensified with discomfort, as Iris and Eddie had a moment with each other, whispering things to each other, nose to nose. Iris planted a deep kiss on his cheek, and after what seemed like forever, she finally pulled away, leaving Eddie with the kiss printed onto his cheek.

I resisted the urge to cringe at the sight.

Barry, on the other hand, seemed more disappointed than disgusted.

"You guys wanna go home?" Eddie asked, still holding Iris in his arms.

"Absolutely!" Barry exclaimed, and he walked away with Eddie, leaving me with Iris and her cup of ice cream.

I smiled at her, and we followed Eddie and Barry out of the building.

"So, how was Space Destroyers?" She chirped happily.

"It was fine," I said with a plain nod.

"Did you enjoy your time with Barry?" She inquired with a raised eyebrow, clearly hinting at something that wasn't there.

"Huh? Oh yeah - we had fun," I stated, "He started crying when a character died."

"I did not!" He protested, turning to give me a panicked look, blush rising in his cheeks. Iris laughed.

"Artemis - he is just so sensitive. Watch this -" she whispered to me before facing Barry and Eddie.

"Oh, then maybe it's for the best that you left _With Love, From Venice_ , Barry," She snickered confidently, enjoying the ability to humiliate him, "The ending would have had you crying for _days_."

"It wouldn't have," Barry replied assuredly, turning away to walk with Eddie, who was watching their interaction just as wistfully as I was. Iris had a different sense of comfort and ease around him than she did with Eddie.

"Oh, _yes_ , it would have!" Iris jabbed again.

"No, see, Iris," Barry explained, facing her once again, this time looking directly down at her with a smoldering smile, "I prefer movies with mentally stimulating plotlines. That's why nobody enjoys watching dumb romantic comedies with you."

Eddie actually laughed as Barry turned on his heels to face away from her, and Iris was infuriated.

"Artemis, can you _believe_ him?" She asked in disbelief, wounded by his playful jest, "The _nerve_ he has."

"Sorry, Iris, but I agree with him," I answered with a reluctant smile, "He's got some nerve, but he's putting it to good use."

Around you. To woo you. Without you even knowing.

Someone kill me.

"Are you serious?" She questioned, turning to me in irritation, "You _can't_ say that."

"I definitely can," I answered easily, smiling at her as I walked, "The only reason why _anyone_ would cry during a romance movie is if they were _forced_ to watch one."

"Oh yeah?" Iris asked, though she's shooting glances between me and Barry, "So you and Barry have similar opinions on romance, now, is it?"

Oh god, I whimpered silently. Iris West, don't you _dare_ go there, I thought. Don't you dare say it out loud...

"Hey, Eddie!" She called out, completely blowing me off, "Don't you think a certain _forensic scientist_ and a certain _physicist_ would look rather cute together?"

Too late. She said it out loud. Don't die, Artemis.

Eddie turned around and laughed in agreement, holding up two thumbs up.

"I've been waiting for someone to say that out loud for days now," he called back. Barry stopped walking and turned around, making unexpected eye contact with me.

I crossed my arms and looked away to Iris, instead, not hiding my feelings.

"Iris, that wasn't really funny..."

"Nonsense," She said, walking around a frozen Barry to hold hands with Eddie, "Fifty bucks says they'll be dating within two weeks."

"Make it a hundred, then we're talking," Eddie prompted.

"Someone has high hopes on a relationship for these two to be together, then," Iris concluded, smiling at Eddie.

"Yeah," He proceeded, smiling back at us with an unnatural light shining through his eyes as he observed us.

"Yeah, I do, actually," he answered ominously, before high-fiving Iris and leading her to his car. Eddie looked over his shoulder at us one last time before turning away.

What was that all about?

Barry and I gave each other one last look, and I shoved my hands in my jacket, turning away. We walked the rest of the way in silence, until Barry spoke up.

"Sorry about that."

"Iris is the one who should be sorry."

"What for?"

"What do you mean 'what for'?" I answered harshly, "She'll owe Eddie a hundred bucks in a matter of two weeks."

To be honest, I felt insulted that Iris had made jab about me being in a relationship with someone who didn't even like me, but I acquiesced. Iris didn't know Barry liked her, and neither did Eddie. Only I did.

Barry let my words sink in, and I knew I've struck a chord that I probably shouldn't have.

"I'm sorry - I didn't mean to say that," I said, turning to face him again.

"Don't worry about it," he assured flatly.

"You really do like her, don't you?" I asked in a small voice, trying to hide how broken-hearted I felt.

 _Snap out of it, Van Kleiss_ , my conscience scolded. _You've got no business liking him. You - you don't really like him, anyway. You just had a little fun with him at the movies, that's all. You're overreacting - big time - and it'll hurt your friendship with Barry if you don't knock it off._

Barry sighed.

"Yeah," he said with a quiet laugh, "The one person in the world I love, and she _had_ to start dating someone when I'm stuck in a coma."

I gave a small laugh at his predicament.

"Should've been a little quicker, then."

"What?"

"To make your move on her. I said you should've been quicker."

Barry sighed again.

"No kidding."

Iris and Eddie have reached the car, and were inside, waiting for us. I stopped in my tracks and faced Barry.

"Or - to be honest, I'm no expert on relationships or anything," I started, looking right at him, "But, I mean, truthfulness is key, right? You don't really have anything to lose by telling her how you feel?"

Barry paused and looked at me, giving me his full attention.

"I'm just saying it'd take a lot of weight off of your shoulders if you were clear with her. And it'd make things easier for her, too. And Eddie. For everyone, really."

Barry looked away, and slowly nodded.

"Thanks for the tip, Artemis," he said, giving me a small smile.

"No problem, Jerry," I replied, tossing him a smirk as I walked past him and entered the backseat of the car.

"So, what were you two discussing, hmm?" Iris quipped flirtatiously as she fixed her lipstick in the mirror.

"Oh - we were making a bet of our own," I answered.

"We were?" Barry asked as he got into the car as well.

"Yes. Barry and I have agreed that if we _do_ indeed decide to become a couple in two weeks time - which totally _isn't_ going to happen, by the way -" Barry rolled his eyes at me as I continued talking, "then we'll treat you both out to dinner. If not, it's on you. Winners decide where to go, losers pay. Deal?"

"Where did you come up with that kind of absurd-" Barry muttered.

"Deal," Eddie announced. Iris followed up, and turned in her seat to shake my hand on it.

"You're both making a mistake here," Barry protested, shocked.

"No, we're not. I just scored myself a nice dinner in two weeks," I said with a smile.

"So now the stakes are totally up," Eddie deduced, "If you two _don't_ go out, Iris owes me a hundred dollars _and_ we take you out to dinner. If not, _I_ owe Iris a hundred bucks, but you pay for dinner."

"That's correct, Detective," I answered coolly, "Although you might as well take a monetary portion out of the bet. I have high tastes when it comes to luxury dinners. You might want to save some bank."

"Oh, like we have cheap taste?" Eddie continued, "If you lose, you're taking us to DiMaso's."

"DiMaso's?" I inquired.

"The best restaurant in town. Average price for a single dish approximates to roughly $150. Better save up, Van Kleiss."

I consented.

"You've lost your mind," Barry asserted in an amazed whisper, out of earshot of Iris and Eddie.

"What?" I hissed back at him, "All we have to do is not like each other. It's easy."

"Uh-huh. Totally." Barry jeered back quietly, raising an eyebrow at me.

In the darkness of the night, with the only light coming from the headlights of cars passing by, and the silver glow of the streetlamps, I was unnerved by how collected he looked - reddish brown hair neatly combed back, easy smile on his face, his posture relaxed, but still strong.

I gulped involuntarily.

"Shouldn't be too hard. I'm in the friendzone regardless."

"What - are you complaining?" Barry teased back, leaning in towards me a little for an added effect.

"Look, Allen - you clearly have feelings for someone else," I hissed, leaning away, "Don't force yourself into something you'll regret, solely because of a challenge. I'm just doing this to show Iris there's nothing between us - I'm on _your_ side. "

Barry fell silent, and nobody said a word until Eddie arrived at Cloverleaf.

"Thanks for dropping me off," I muttered, getting out of the car.

"Aww, Barry, aren't you going to walk her to the door?" Iris pressed.

"You might as well do it - you ate all of her cookies in one sitting," Eddie reminded with a tease, "Kiss her goodnight."

I heard the car door open and tried not to seethe as Barry's tall, lean figure caught up with mine.

"Allen," I muttered.

"Van Kleiss," he replied, though he said it in a much friendlier tone than I had.

"You know you can go back - I can walk on my own."

"Doesn't quite work that way," he said, smiling at me as we walked up the stairs, "I'm not doing this for Iris, or Eddie, or for the idiotic bet you made. I'm just doing this because, you know, you're still my friend."

"And that's all I'll ever be," I retorted with a tiny snort, as we arrived at my door.

"Is there a reason you're being so defensive of that?" Barry joked with a sly smile, catching my bluff.

"No. I'm just reminding you of the obvious," I answered, thankful for the darkness that hid my otherwise bright blushing. I couldn't like him already - No, I didn't like him. I just got a bit riled up because of my night out, because we saw Space Destroyers and I got a little jealous for him showing Iris affection. A good night's sleep, and everything would be back to normal the next day.

He was just a friend.

"Of course."

I opened the door, and turned around to face him one last time, and offered him a fist bump.

"You gotta admit, though, tonight was pretty epic."

Barry flashed a smile in accord, and hit my fist gently with his own.

"Agreed. Nobody saw that plot twist - in the movie, I meant."

"That plot twist indeed," I concurred, with a smile, "See you around, dork."

"Likewise."

I closed the door behind me and smiled as I entered the house, and changed to go to bed.

Something fluttered onto the floor as I hung my jacket in my closet.

I tried not to wince as I leaned down - my knees were still sore from the attack - and retrieved the ticket stub to Space Destroyers.

I chuckled, remembering how Barry had surprised me with the ticket, and placed it in my desk drawer, right beside the handwritten note the Flash had given me.

###

My alarm woke me up at my regular time for work, but of course, Dr. Wells has strictly forbidden me from showing my face at STAR Labs for the next five days. Seeing how I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep, I decided to make good use of my time and headed over to the gym.

"Hey!" Cisco greeted, meeting up with me at the sidewalk leading to the entrance, his hair still back in a foolish headband.

"Hi! What's up?" I asked, happy to see my friend.

"Not much, just getting a bit of exercise in before going back to work," he replied, placing his gym bag inside. I did the same and followed him upstairs, "You?"

"Meh. I ate an insane amount of junk food yesterday. Probably need to get rid of it," I joked.

"Yeah... Your kitchen is not the healthiest place in the world," Cisco replied, with a warm, guilty smile.

"Don't be ridiculous. I cook _plenty_ of healthy food. You just go straight for my junk food shelf, so you wouldn't know," I said, diving my hand towards Cisco's hair.

"Enough of this," Cisco protested with a laugh, shooting my hand away, "Barry told me you watched Space Destroyers with him last night. How was it?"

"Oh, Alir admitted he's the traito -"

"No! No! No no no no no!" Cisco shouted, holding a hand up to silence me as I laughed at his reaction, "No spoilers! I meant how your night was. With _Barry_."

 _With Barry._

"Now, isn't that the million dollar question?" I replied dryly.

Cisco sat down beside me with his chin resting on his fists, a small smile playing on his lips, clearly asking for an answer.

"Well, it was okay. Iris wanted us to watch some stupid love story, but it got awkward so I forced Barry to get me out of there."

"Go on."

"Why? What did Barry tell you?"

"He told me you made a bet with Eddie and Iris."

"Did he tell you what it was about?"

"No. But it sounded rather interesting."

"Clever of him."

"Should I be concerned about what it's about?" Cisco asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Go lift your dumbbells, Ramon." I said, pushing him away. He chuckled and got up, following me to the indoor track.

"No, I'm going to run today. Wait up!"

We started off with a jog, and I decided to ask how things were with him.

"So, what have you been doing at the Lab without me?"

"Um, I'd lie to you, but you actually mean well, so I'd feel bad about it," Cisco explained, huffing as he spoke, "We've been doing the stuff we usually do when you're not here."

"Work with the Streak, you mean?"

"He's not the Streak anymore - he's the Flash now, and that information is _not_ for me to give away."

"So it's true, then. You _are_ working with the Streak - sorry, the _Flash._ " I said easily, speeding up to pass him.

Cisco chased after me.

"I can neither affirm nor deny that," he huffed.

"What's he like?"

"For starters, he's really fast..."

I rolled my eyes, and my brain automatically decides to go into daydream mode to zone Cisco out.

Unfortunately, I'm thinking of Barry.

 _Barry Allen, who has the most adorable smile and is the cutest geek I've ever seen._

 _Barry Allen, who ate almost all of my cookies and told me they were great._

 _Barry Allen, who ran off foolishly when the earthquaking metahuman showed up the other day, and returned injured._

"Do you know the Flash's secret identity?" I asked Cisco, who had caught up with me.

 _Barry Allen, who I fucking cannot be in a relationship with._

 _Barry Allen, who always visits STAR Labs, but forgets his keys - supposedly so I can return them to him, though I doubt that he does it on purpose._

"Do you?" Cisco retorted.

"That's what I asked you." I answered back, tuning him out as we ran.

 _Barry Allen, who had a magical little coma and woke up without any side effects._

 _Barry Allen, who asked Dr. Wells to let me stay when I showed up at STAR Labs in the middle of the night._

 _Barry Allen, who thought the Flash was a good superhero name._

 _Barry Allen._

"Well, we -"

"Oh my fucking god!" I exclaimed with astonishment, slapping my palm against my forehead, as the gears in my brain finally clicked.

"Language!" Cisco scolded, running to catch up to me.

I turned in my tracks and looked to Cisco in disbelief. Why hadn't I realized this earlier? How could I have been so ignorant?

"Is it _actually_ Barry?" I exclaimed, "It's Barry, isn't it? How did I not see this?!"

"Whaaaat?" Cisco responded shakily, "Girl, don't be ridiculous."

"Face it, Cisco. He woke up from his coma around the same time the Flash showed up, he's at STAR Labs 24/7, he was there the night Rajeet showed up, _and_ he disappeared around the same time that earthquaking metahuman showed up. It _has_ to be Barry."

"Artemis, that's ludicrous!" Cisco said with a laugh, "Barry is _not_ the Flash! You've seen Barry run, for Pete's sake!"

"Then who is it, huh?" I asked, walking right up to him, jabbing a finger in his chest - forcing him to back away from me awkwardly, "Tell me."

"No!"

"Tell me!"

"NO!"

Cisco stumbled backwards, but I caught him by the neck of his shirt. He yelped as I pulled him closer to my own face.

"Then look me in the eyes and _swear_ it's not Barry Allen," I demanded sternly.

"It's not Barry Allen what?" a voice asked behind us.

I turned around, Cisco still at my mercy, and watched as Barry appeared up the staircase, smiling in a tank top and basketball shorts.

"You had to show up _now_ , didn't you?" Cisco scoffed.

I released him and approached Barry, trying to ignore how nice his arms look in that tank. I smiled falsely as I crossed my arms across my chest.

"Hi, sorry I wasn't here earlier. I was -"

"Running late?" I interjected. Barry seemed surprised by words.

"Yeah, I slept in a bit," Barry explained easily, knitting his eyebrows.

"Ahh... Shame you didn't use your super speed to get here, then," I raved, turning around. I smiled - I had figured out who the Scarlet Speedster was. He was standing right behind me.

"Super speed?" Barry asked, confused.

"Super. _Speed,_ " I replied slowly, "So, Flash, how was your morning?"

Barry seemed puzzled, and threw Cisco a perplexed glance.

"Why did you call me that?" He asked me dumbly.

"Because it's you, isn't it?" I asked, turning back towards the track, "You're the Flash. Wow, what was it you said to me last night when I was afraid of a metahuman attacking the theaters? 'Have a little faith in the Flash'? Then when I asked what if the Flash wasn't there, you said 'Have a little faith in me'? Wow. Just wow. Couldn't have made it any more obvious, could you?"

Barry gave me a blank look, then burst into loud laughter.

"She's - she's not serious, is she?" he asked, smiling at Cisco before facing me again, "Artemis, you merely took my words out of context. There is _no_ way I'm the Flash."

"I don't believe you," I asserted, shaking my head stubbornly at him.

"No?"

"Nope."

"I'm not the Flash."

" _Yes_ , you are. Don't lie."

"Well, if I _am_ the Flash, then that means I'm  also the one who got you those pretty roses," he said, raising an eyebrow at me, "And I'm _more_ than certain we've established what my feelings for you are."

"Oooooooooooh," Cisco crooned, watching both of us excitedly, "Shots have been fired."

I fought away any sign of blushing. The Flash had given me a huge bouquet of roses - not something you could easily forget. And Barry was the Flash.

As much as I would not have wanted it to be so otherwise, Barry was right.

"This isn't about the roses. They mean nothing romantic," I dictated, "And I don't care what your feelings for me are anyway. I care about the fact that now, someone I trusted is _also_ lying to me."

"Artemis used guilt trip," Cisco murmured, "It's super effective."

"You think I'm lying to you?" Barry asked, incredulously.

"Yes."

"And why would I do that?"

"Because Dr. Wells told you to, just like he's been telling Cisco and Caitlin," I answered, before remembering something, "Oh my god. The Cosmic Treadmill."

"What about it?" Barry and Cisco responded in unison, Cisco looking rather worried.

"You use it. Oh snap - no wonder it asked for 'desired speed and input'. No fucking wonder you turned it off so easily. You use it. You run on in. It _actually_ is a treadmill," I wondered out loud, "Oh _wow_. You _all_ have been lying to my face. And I senselessly believed you."

Barry looked at Cisco again.

"Artemis, that's not true."

"Yes it is! **_Stop_** lying, Barry."

"Artemis -" Barry said, grabbing my arm and forcing me to look at him, "Do you honestly believe - that after everything you've gone through to get here, after everything we have in common about our pasts, after everything we _still_ need to find out about the speedsters who killed our parents - that I would lie to you about something as critical as that - about me being a speedster myself?!"

I pulled my arm away from him, but couldn't look away from the betrayed look on his face.

"Because - if you do believe that, then that means that I am _nowhere_ near worthy of calling myself your friend, and that I have no sense of humanity or morals, and if that's the case, then I truly don't deserve to be the Flash, and I couldn't bear to live with myself if that was the kind of person that I was."

His words settled in, and I gulped.

"What about your secret identity?" I asked meekly, "Wouldn't you need to hide it?"

"Artemis, I personally have nothing to hide or protect from you," he assured solemnly, crossing his arms and looking down at me, "And I wish I had some way to prove to you that I'm not the Flash, but you _have_ to believe me when I say that whatever you think you know - it's nothing more than a coincidence."

I nodded my head in shame.

Barry was shocked when I had confronted Cisco and Caitlin about them working with the Flash the other day.

And Barry's father was still in prison. If Barry knew anything about the speedsters who killed his mother, he would _not_ be hiding that kind of information.

And by no means did Barry seem like a liar.

I was wrong to accuse the only person I could trust of lying to me.

"You're right," I admitted timidly, "Sorry."

I turned and walked away, towards the stairs.

"Where are you going?" Cisco called out.

"Home, then Jitters," I responded bitterly, "I don't feel like making breakfast."

"Alright. We'll see you there, then," Barry promised half-heartedly.

I gave them one last smile, and left the building, scowling the entire way home.

* * *

We watched in silence as Artemis turned and walked away, hanging her head with guilt as she disappeared down the stairs.

The second I heard the door downstairs open and then shut with a _thud_ , I collapsed to the floor and covered my face with my hands in shame for what I had said to her.

"Bro, you just dug yourself the deepest hole ever," Cisco said in a wistful voice beside me. He sat down and sighed deeply. Cisco was right - I had just used up whatever trust Artemis had left in me to lie to her face - again.

"How are we going to fix this?" I groaned, lying down on the floor.

Cisco looked down at me and shook his head dejectedly.

"She's got us all figured out. It was only a matter of time, anyway - what with everything she's seen in Central City so far."

"And now we just got her to believe that everything she knows is completely wrong."

Cisco smiled sadly at me.

"We have to tell her," I concluded grimly, still frozen in my dumbfounded position.

"True that," Cisco agreed, "Even Caitlin hates keeping her in the dark."

"And Caitlin's probably the second most protective person here, when it comes to my secret identity," I mumbled.

"Mhmm," Cisco agreed.

"How did Dr. Wells _possibly_ think having a new scientist over without telling her about me was a good idea?!"

"Beats me," He retorted, looking away in thought, "He just told us we need her for the tech and for 'scientific developments', remember? And he was _pissed_ when she showed up the other night. He was pretty clear about keeping her off of the team."

"There's no way that'll work, though!" I protested, leaning up on my elbows, "At this rate, he's either going to fire her and get her kicked out of the Lab for good, because _she's_ not going to back down, or she'll have to join the team and he'll have to comply with keeping her around."

"Well, I don't know about you, but I kinda like her," Cisco joked, "And Caitlin does too, actually. That's only making things worse - it'd be _so_ much easier to lie to her face and kick her out if she was, you know, annoying or didn't know what she was doing, or was mean or something."

"She _is_ mean," I muttered, remembering how cross she had gotten with me last night. Why - I had no idea. She just kept rubbing in to my face about how she'd always stay my friend, nothing more, nothing less, but at the same time, she had been supportive of my feelings for Iris.

Even with super speed, my brain was still too slow to figure out how girls worked.

"Not really. She's just tough around the edges, but she _does_ seem to like us all."

"No kidding," I countered, "I mean, we're all getting along fine with her."

"Some of us better than others?" Cisco asked, raising an eyebrow.

I gave him a reluctant smile.

"Do you think Dr. Wells is right about her?" I asked.

"About keeping her off the team?"

"No - about what he said. That she's a threat to us, and us not being able to trust her."

Cisco fell silent as he recalled Dr. Well's mysterious warning about her, once Wells had seen how well we were getting along with her. The Artemis Dr. Wells had described was nothing like the one we knew, and I couldn't help but feel something was off.

Artemis was funny and witty, and seemed like an honest and extremely likable person. Dr. Wells had said she was conniving and cold-hearted and would bring STAR Labs down if she found out who I was.

Cold-hearted?

Artemis was as humble as anyone could be. She completely downplayed how smart and accomplished she was, and had felt extremely guilty whenever anyone helped her - when I had bought her breakfast at Jitters, and when Cisco and Caitlin and I helped her move in - despite the fact that she could never have been able to move in on her own.

A 'cold-hearted and conniving person' would not have bothered to console a drunk Caitlin or carry her all the way home, and definitely would not have concerned themselves with Drunk Caitlin's wellbeing, or even conceded when Drunk Caitlin and Tipsy Cisco forced her to embarrass herself in group karaoke.

Artemis seemed like a caring person, and was friendly and sharp-minded. She just had this air of easiness around her that made her likable.

There was no way Wells could be right about her - Artemis was the opposite of cold-hearted.

She cared about the Lab and just wanted to know what was going on, and Dr. Wells refused to tell her.

"You know... For once in my life, I believe Dr. Wells is wrong about someone. Artemis is just as much Team Flash material as the rest of us," Cisco added.

"No kidding," I agreed.

Artemis had run right into the dangerzone when the earthquaking metahuman - SilverShock, Cisco had dubbed him - had showed up, despite the fact that both Iris and I had warned her to stay inside Jitters, where it was safe. She had completely disregarded her own safety as she stepped out to help a forgotten child at the mercy of the metahuman, and had even saved Iris from SilverShock when he had her completely vulnerable. Her last stand - when her quick-thinking led her to knock SilverShock out when I wasn't ... as victorious as I could have been, to put it lightly... dispelled any distrust I might have had for her.

She proved herself a hero, and I couldn't help but subtlely thank her for her bravery. True - the roses and the note had been an act of impulsiveness, and the fact that I had stolen the red ones insinuated something far more dramatic than intended, but I didn't mind, so long as she knew she was appreciated, even if Dr. Wells was heavily against it.

Then - when I dropped her off at a field near STAR Labs and she made her way to the Cortex, she had run straight into the medical wings where Caitlin had been treating me, and immediately asked how I was - and even blamed herself for me going missing and getting injured. She never even thought to ask Caitlin to help her with her own arms, which were bleeding quite a lot.

"There's no way around it - if we want her to stay, then we _need_ to tell her," I affirmed.

"I actually would love to have her on the team," Cisco explained.

"It's more than that. She's already found out I'm the Flash, and now - we are blatantly betraying her by lying to her. We've got to tell her the truth before she gets hard evidence, or -"

"Or she'll go Jack the Ripper on us?" Cisco offered, with a small laugh. I laughed reluctantly as well - when Dr. Wells had scolded Caitlin and Cisco for not knowing who Artemis was, Cisco decided to run a 'background check' - he basically went full-creepy and stalked her online. Aside from her academic work in college and her athletic record from high school, Cisco had also discovered something of intrigue and interest- a police record, which went into full-detail describing how violent and unrestrained she had been as a child.

"Worse. She'll hate us forever and won't talk to us again."

Cisco laughed at my response. He too finally collapsed beside me, and sighed.

"Just admit it, Barry," Cisco scoffed, "You're practically in love with her."

"Am not," I mumbled in protest. Artemis was right - I only liked Iris, and there was no point in starting something with her.

Right?

"We're all just getting along well with her," I allowed.

"Yeah, some better than others," Cisco teased, punching my bare arm before getting up.

I ignored his comment, and instead my mind went back to everything we knew about Artemis, and everything Dr. Wells had said about her.

My mind couldn't wrap around Dr. Wells' words.

He was keeping secrets from her, and we were in turn lying to her. _She_ was the innocent one here, and nobody could blame her for trying to find out what happened.

Something else Dr. Wells had told me came to mind - an ominous warning so bizarre, I doubted I'd ever be able to believe it, even if it _was_ true.

What's more - the strange detail about my past that Artemis shared with me. She was the only other person in the _world_ who had lost her mother the same way I did - on the same night, with the same murderers.

There was no way that could happen, but here it was. And here she was - in Central City, working as a physicist at STAR Labs - the same STAR Labs that guided me as the Flash. And I had full intentions to find out what happened that night, and she was just as on board with it as I was.

Everything was just so confusing - Artemis, with her mother's murder, and me with mine - both of us being here in Central City, closely involved with STAR Labs - that I couldn't believe it to be a mere coincidence.

Something was off about Dr. Wells too, regarding Artemis. He was kind, composed and fatherly around us, but cold and distant with _her_ \- why would he hire her but then keep her away from the team, when she had so much to offer and could actually help us solve my mother's murder - as well as her own?

"Dr. Wells HAS to be right about what he said about her, or we're making a grave mistake."


	10. Team Flash

**[Artemis' POV]**

I made my way over to Jitters, walking through the construction zone that was fixing the road from the attack the other day. Jitters greeted me with its omnipresent strong, coffee-bean aroma, and I smiled at the calming sensation.

Eddie, Cisco, Barry and Caitlin were all sitting and laughing together at a table with food and drinks in front of them, and Caitlin smiled at me. I dejectedly smiled back at her. I had nothing against her, but I wasn't exactly willing to deal with Eddie, after last night. After earlier today, I had no heart to confront Barry and Cisco, either. I turned to order, but was nearly knocked off of my legs as a small body ran into me and wrapped snaky arms around my knees.

"Oh - hey Theodore!" I exclaimed, bending down to take the child's smiling face into my hands. I dropped a kiss on his nose, and picked him up.

"Where's your mama?" I asked.

"Dere," the dark-haired child said, pointing to a woman throwing empty coffee cups away. She walked over to me and smiled.

"Hello again. We didn't get a chance to properly introduce ourselves the other day," she said, holding out her hand, "I'm Elaine."

"Artemis," I announced, accepting her handshake with a smile. Theodore kicked himself out of my arms, and I let him down. He walked over and dutifully took his mother's hand.

"I've got to drop him off at daycare, and go to work, so I'm sorry for the short meeting, but I hope to see you again soon," Elaine promised, still smiling at me, "Thank you again, though. He thinks of you as his hero."

I smiled and shook my head in denial.

"Well, thank you. I only did what I had to."

Elaine left with her son, and I ordered, before turning around and taking the empty seat at the table where my friends were.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Barry's future girlfriend," Eddie greeted. Caitlin nearly spewed her coffee and looked at me in disbelief, before turning to Barry.

"Explain. Now."

"I have nothing to say," Barry said, holding his hands up in surrender, "This is all on her."

"What?" Caitlin asked, facing me with surprise.

"Future girlfriend?" Cisco inquired with a devilish smile, "Oh, do tell."

I focused on unwrapping my food, completely ignoring them. The two were still waiting, and Eddie was smiling proudly as he watched my reaction.

"I'm not anyone's girlfriend," I finally said, with a mouth full of bagels, "And I don't plan on it."

"Keep denying it. The bet's still on, and I hope you live up to your word," Eddie said.

"Likewise, Thawne."

"So, Eddie, tell me about this bet," Cisco crooned.

"Well, last night, Barry and Artemis tagged along with Iris and myself on one of our dates, and then they ditched us and went on a little date of their own," Eddie explained.

"Not a date," Barry coughed.

"Wow," Cisco murmured, nudging Barry with his elbow, "You didn't tell me about that."

Even Caitlin was shooting an expectant look between me and Barry.

"And Iris and I couldn't help but notice that these two would make a cute couple, and that they've got some great chemistry -"

"What chemistry?" I interjected, wanting to leave. Barry's eyes met my own across the table, but we both looked away.

"- and so we agreed that if these two do indeed become a couple within the next two weeks, they owe us a dinner, and if not, then we owe them a dinner."

I shrugged, and continued eating, while everyone watched me, awaiting a response. Eddie's eyes glinted in amusement.

" _With love, from Central City_ , eh, Artemis?" Cisco teased. Barry rolled his eyes.

"Oh, come on! What's so bad about you two dating? You're both single, in your twenties, and total science geeks. And you love each other," Cisco said.

"No we don't," I replied uselessly.

"Why? What is it that's so bad its keeping you away from each other?"

"She's a Patriots fan," Barry answered quickly.

"Yeah, a Patriots fan who just moved to Central City. It'll die out pretty quickly," Caitlin added, "You don't have much to worry about."

"Thanks for the help, Caitlin," I intoned sarcastically.

"Well?" Eddie asked.

"Well what?" I asked, annoyed.

"What don't you like about each other?" Eddie continued. Cisco, Caitlin and Barry suddenly turned to me, awaiting an answer.

"Not my type?"

"That's out of the question," Eddie scoffed.

"Well, he's, ummm," I attempted, studying Barry, who had now raised a nervous eyebrow up at me. Aside from our little dispute this morning, and the fact that he liked Iris over me, I couldn't think of anything else that was particularly dis-likable. Barry was sweet, Barry was handsome, Barry was kind, and we got along pretty well.

"He's flawless," I mumbled in disbelief, "That's - that's not possible."

Barry gave me a surprised look, and Cisco raised his hands in a silent round of applause. Caitlin let out a small laugh, then immediately covered it up with a hand.

"Not bad," Eddie murmured.

"Well, that's one down," Cisco announced happily, turning to Barry.

"That doesn't mean I like him. Stop making a big deal over it." I scolded.

"She's right," Barry said, "Just drop it, guys."

"How can you not like a flawless man?" Eddie questioned incredulously.

"So, what should their couple name be?" Cisco asked Caitlin enthusiastically, brushing him off completely.

"Barrymis?" She offered.

"Artery?" Cisco shot back.

"Those all sound horrible," Barry said, "- not that I'm saying we need a shipping name."

"Or that we need to be shipped at all," I added. He nodded at me, and Eddie leaned his head on his hand, smiling at us.

"No. Not Artery," Caitlin mumbled, "What about Bartemis?"

"Artemarry!" Cisco announced with confidence, glee shining in his eyes.

"Artemarry?" Caitlin asked incredulously.

"'Artemarry' sounds like 'Ought to marry'," Eddie commented.

"See? It's perfect!" Cisco replied. Caitlin high-fived him. Barry shook his head and looked over to me.

"How did Operation Fourth Wheel turn into us being pushed into a relationship?" He asked.

"If I studied this for a hundred years, I still would have no answer for you," I responded hopelessly.

"Awwww, you two already have your own little secret operations!" Cisco gushed.

"What's Operation Fourth Wheel?" Caitlin questioned, facing me with a sweet smile. Eddie too turned to me for an explanation.

"I offered to help Barry get out of third-wheeling you and Iris," I described, picking at my breakfast.

"Oh," Eddie mused, turning to Barry, "No wonder you jumped at the chance to bring her with us yesterday."

Barry was about to defend himself, but I interrupted him by addressing Eddie.

"Hey, Thawne," I called, though Eddie was right next to me, "I needed to talk to you, actually."

"Oh? What's up?"

"I actually wanted to discuss it alone," I explained meekly, as four pairs of eyes fell onto me.

"What did you want to discuss with my boyfriend alone?" Iris the Waitress asked playfully, appearing around the table and draping her hands over Barry's and Eddie's shoulders.

"Mild safety concern I had," I lied with a smile.

"I'm kidding. I know you both better than to insinuate something like that," Iris said, smiling back at me.

"How's life, Iris?" Caitlin asked.

"It's going well," Iris responded pleasantly, squeezing Eddie's shoulder, "Just got a quick shift here, then I'm back over to the Picture News."

"How's your internship going, by the way?" I asked, glad for a chance to change the topic.

"Ugh. Horrible," Iris complained, though she still smiled, "Mason Bridges won't publish any of my work. He's under the pretense that I'm nothing more than an amateur blogger."

"Hey - your blog is pretty impressive, though," I replied, "What's his deal?"

"He's sick of me going on and on about the Flash, and actually believes there's a conspiracy behind STAR Labs. He'd much rather have me investigate that."

"What?" Cisco cried out.

"A conspiracy behind STAR Labs?!" I exclaimed sarcastically, "That's _positively_ preposterous! Why would _anyone_ accuse STAR Labs of something as _horrific_ as that?!"

Cisco, Caitlin and Barry all looked away from Iris and narrowed their eyes at me.

"I'm kidding," I conceded, "But, hey, if its STAR Labs he wants, its STAR Labs he gets. You're a creative writer. You'll come up with something so spectacular - he'll never question your writing again. I'm sure of it."

Iris's eyes twinkled as she thought over what I said.

"Yeah..." she mulled, "Yeah, maybe I will. I just needed a push in the right direction. Thanks for the pep talk, Artemis."

I shrugged at her. I wasn't really aiming to guide her, but it appeared that my words had an encouraging effect on her. She dropped a kiss on Eddie's temple and gave me a quick hug around my shoulders from behind.

" _You_ are going to help me make a name for myself," she assured, though I had no idea what that meant, and she surprised me with a quick kiss on top of my head before she walked away.

We all watched as she went back over to the counter. Even I was surprised by the quick, sisterly peck about my head.

I turned and faced Eddie with an evil grin.

"Did you see that?" I asked, smirking at him, "She kissed me. I am _so_ going to steal your girl."

Eddie shot me a look of astonishment, before giving me a short, dry laugh.

"Not a chance. Iris and I are happy together. And - she doesn't swing that way."

"Neither do I, but wouldn't it be ironic if _I'm_ the one who got the girl in the end," I joked, enjoying the disbelief on Eddie's and Barry's faces.

"You're insane. I've already got the girl," Eddie muttered, shaking his head with a weak smile, "I've got to leave. It was nice seeing you all for breakfast," he conceded, getting up to depart.

"Mind if I walk you out?" I asked, getting up as well. Eddie understood, and held an arm out towards the door.

###

"So, why are you doing this?" I asked, once we were safely outside.

"Doing what?" Eddie asked, as we walked towards his car.

"You're trying to push Barry towards me, when we clearly don't need any of that. This is all on you."

" _I_ never told you both to run off on your own last night. And would you honestly deny that you didn't have a good time with him?" Eddie remarked, "You both had a _lot_ more fun than Iris and I did, and _we're_ the couple here."

"We're just friends," I answered, slightly annoyed by his words, "You've got ulterior intentions with this. Spit it out."

Eddie sighed and stopped, and looked away.

"Look - Barry kind of intimidates me," he explained after a moment of silence, looking back at me, "And I know him and Iris are just friends, and that there probably isn't anything there -"

"There isn't," I declared, defensiveness settling through me, though I wasn't sure why, "Barry would never try to hurt your relationship. And he doesn't have any feelings for Iris whatsoever."

"I - I know that," Eddie allowed nervously, putting a hand to my shoulder, "But it would really put my mind at ease if - if"

"If what?"

"If I had some surety on that matter," Eddie confessed, looking at me with uncertainty, "And I'm not trying to push you into a relationship - I'm sorry if it came off that way - but I think it would just take a lot of stress off of our own relationship if I knew for sure that Barry was invested in someone else."

"And what makes you think I'm that 'someone else'? There's thousands of people in this city," I argued, "What makes you think I'm even willing to be in a relationship with him? Barry doesn't need to be in a relationship for you to have peace of mind. It's all in your head. Don't try to set us up."

"Nobody's setting anyone up," Eddie explained, opening the door to his car, "But there is potential between you and Barry. And it wouldn't hurt anyone if you both acted on it. I'll see you around."

Eddie drove off, and left me in a state of confusion.

He was right. Barry and I did have a good time last night, even if it was just as friends. We always got along well together. And, to be fair, I did see where Eddie's logic was coming from. Iris turned fluttery as a happy butterfly around Barry. If someone got my significant other to act like that, even _I_ would want them out of the picture.

Still, I didn't like the way Eddie was being forceful about it.

He had no right to use me to get his competition out of the way.

"Maybe he's just saying that to win your bet?" a female voice offered behind me. I turned and saw Caitlin waiting by the Jitters entrance, smiling nervously at me. I smiled back at her.

"How much of that did you hear?" I asked.

"Pretty much all of it," she responded with a poised nod, before smiling and pulling me back inside Jitters, leading me back to our table, seating me next to Barry.

"The last thing any of us needs is drama in our lives," she described, nodding at me and Barry, "And the two of you do seem to be good friends. So - just don't let any of this get to you. Let things slide, and if something was meant to happen, it'll happen on its own. Don't worry about the rest."

Barry nodded solemnly.

"Thanks, Caitlin."

Caitlin smiled appreciatively at us. I couldn't help breaking into a smile too. She always seemed to know what to say.

"Just go make babies already," Cisco groaned, dismissing us with a sip of his drink. I glared at him, and he smiled innocently back at us.

"There are two kinds of people in this world," Barry muttered. I chuckled at his remark.

Caitlin was about to say something, but was interrupted by a ringtone off of Cisco's phone. Answering it, he turned to Caitlin.

"Sorry, Jack and Rose, but we gotta jet. Dr. Wells is waiting for us," he said, getting up to push his chair in. Caitlin followed in his example.

"Alright - tell Dr. Wells that I miss him. Dearly," I joked. Caitlin smiled and rolled her eyes at me. The two waved us goodbye, and turned to walk out, but Caitlin spun around and walked back over to me.

"Wait - when do you want us to come over?" She asked.

"Whenever is fine for you. I've got nothing to do this entire week."

"Gee, I wonder why," Barry mumbled beside me. I gently slapped his arm.

"Will tomorrow after work be okay?" Caitlin asked.

"Tomorrow's fine."

"Okay. See you then," Caitlin answered, squeezing my hand warmly before turning away. Cisco saluted at us, and the two left, leaving me alone with Barry.

"Some morning," I muttered. Barry chuckled beside me.

"Yeah... Interesting morning indeed," he said, smiling at me. I finished my food in silence, and turned to him, enjoying our silence together, before realizing something.

"Don't you have to go to work?"

"What?"

"Work. You know - forensics lab? CCPD? Angry receptionist lady?" I observed, "The little hall on the third floor of the building located at the intersection of -"

"Artemis, I know where I work," Barry assured, "And - yeah, I probably should get going."

"Are you driving yourself?"

"Nah. It's not far. And walking is great exercise, anyway," Barry said.

"Though, you might have to run, now, if you know what I mean..." I joked, "You're a bit late."

"Yeah, maybe," Barry responded, smiling in agreement.

"Don't go too fast, though, or all of that friction might burn the city to the ground."

"You're hilarious. See you later?" Barry asked, holding his fist out for a fist-bump.

"See you later," I agreed, lightly hitting my fist to his. Barry faced away to leave, but soon turned back to me.

"Wait - if it's okay, could I come over on Thursday?"

"Sure? Why?"

"So we could just, like, compare evidence about, you know, the murders?"

Cold settled through me, and I nodded my head as I recalled the pictures of Nora Allen stabbed on the ground - almost identical to the ones I had of my own mother stabbed in bed.

"Alright. Thanks," Barry stated.

"Bye, Barry."

Barry smiled one last time and I wistfully watched him leave Jitters and walk down the sidewalk.

Barry was right. There was no way he could be the Flash. He was too gentle and poised for that kind of action, that kind of exhilaration.

And - again - if he knew anything about the speedsters who had killed his mother, he wouldn't hide that kind of information, especially from me.

###

I spent the next two days in idleness, fixing up my apartment and making dinner for my incoming guests.

A visit to the gym that morning allowed for another impromptu meeting with Cisco and Barry, the former who promised he would be at my place by seven that evening with Caitlin after work, the latter who asked me to teach him how to run better and ended up humiliating himself at the expense of myself and Cisco.

I smiled at the memory and finished cooking dinner, when the front door opened and Cisco entered without warning.

"You could at least knock!" Caitlin reprimanded, following in after him.

"Artemis loves me, though!" Cisco protested, turning to me for support. I laughed.

"It's fine - my house is your house, right?" I offered, wiping my hands and walking over to them.

"I don't really need your house, just your kitchen," Cisco explained, winking at me as he walked past to my pantry.

"You shouldn't be so casual with him about that stuff," Caitlin advised, "He'll rack up a fortune in grocery costs."

"He already has," I muttered, though I couldn't help smiling at Cisco.

"Cisco, I already cooked dinner!" I protested, as I watched him fix a sandwich.

"What - Artemis, you didn't need to make anything for us!" Caitlin mentioned, "We just came to see you!"

"Nonsense," I replied, dismissing her. I addressed Barry.

"Didn't know _you'd_ be coming over too," I commented. He smiled sheepishly and held up a serving dish covered in aluminum.

"Joe and I made pasta. He insisted I give some to you for eating up all of your cookies yesterday."

"You made cookies yesterday!?" Cisco called out in mistrust, "And you _didn't_ save any for me?!"

"Barry, you know this wasn't necessary," I said, ignoring Cisco.

"There's no way anyone can say no to Joe, though," Barry conceded, scratching the back of his head. I told Barry to give my thanks to Joe and give him my best regards, and set the warm dish on my dining table. Behind us, Cisco opened up the oven, letting warm waves of food-scented air spread throughout my living room.

"Is that a casserole?" Cisco inquired with a mouth full of sandwich.

"It's dinner," I answered, "And it'll be ready in a few minutes. Why don't you come join us and socialize in the meantime? Did you come here to see me or my food?"

Barry laughed as Cisco looked embarrassed, finished off his sandwich, and joined the three of us in my dining room.

"So - what brings you all to my lovely residence?" I asked, once we were all settled in.

"We just wanted to make sure you were okay," Caitlin explained.

"And talk to you about STAR Labs," Cisco added hurriedly.

"Wait - now?!" Barry exclaimed in astonishment.

""Well, yeah. Now," Cisco replied, although both he and Barry seemed confused.

"So, how have things been?" Caitlin continued, ignoring the men.

"Things have been okay, so far," I answered with a shrug, "Not much to do when you're not working."

"How're your arms?" Cisco asked, signalling towards my rolled up sleeves.

"Oh - they're perfectly fine. Although it sucks to wear full-sleeves in this weather," I joked, "Maybe if Barry lent me some of his concealer, then it wouldn't be much of an issue?"

"Concealer?" Barry asked, perplexed by my words.

"Yeah, you - wait, was I not supposed to bring this up?" I asked.

"What?" Barry inquired.

"Yesterday. You told me you used concealer to cover up your scratches and bruises. From the metahuman attack?"

"Oh?" Barry asked, "I mean - oh! Right! Yeah, the, uhh, makeup shop..."

Cisco threw his friend a worried glance, and Caitlin tapped her fingers in rhythm on the table, clearly unsure of what to make of the situation.

"You both are weird," Cisco finally concluded.

"Agreed," Barry and I remarked in unison, before smiling at each other from across the table.

Behind us, the timer for my oven went off.

"Well, sorry guys, you can't call me weird and expect me to feed you," I remarked in jest, getting up. Caitlin laughed at the men's reaction and followed me into my kitchen. I shooed her out and returned with the food and plates, utensils, drinks, whatnot, and everyone helped themselves.

"So you're an engineer, physicist _and_ a cook?" Cisco asked, helping himself to a hearty serving.

"I'm not really a cook - I'm just a 21 year old bored out of her mind."

"Who always keeps good food on standby?" Cisco added.

"I mean, I can _always_ change that if it's bothering you -"

"No, no!" Cisco said, "No need for any that!"

"So, how's work treating you both?" I asked Caitlin.

"See, _that's_ the unanswerable question," she confessed, "But we'd like to change that."

" _Do_ go on."

"As you know, Dr. Wells has been asking us to not tell you certain things about STAR Labs," Cisco explained, "And - the way he wants things to work - is probably going to get you kicked out for good, since there's so much we're not allowed to tell you."

"And we were thinking," Caitlin continued, wiping her mouth with a napkin, "That we _don't_ want to get you kicked out."

"Oh, I like the sound of that," I answered, "so... what are we going to do?"

I felt glad my friends were on my side and finally understood how nerve-wracking it was for me to not be in on the know.

"We're going to try and convince Dr. Wells on our part to change his mind about you," Cisco explained.

"Why? What did he say about me?"

The trio awkwardly looked at each other.

"Well - he said it might be a bit... dangerous... for you to be working with us," Caitlin explained with hesitation.

"How?" I asked, confused by Caitlin's comment, "What are you doing that's safe for you but not me?"

"The way Dr. Wells put it... It'd be safer for _us_ if you weren't involved..." Barry conceded.

"What do you mean?" I asked, offended.

"To put it gently, Dr. Wells thinks we're in danger... from _you_ ," Caitlin answered.

"What? From _me_?!" I declared, "That makes no sense - I'm not going to hurt you! I'm not a metahuman!"

"Well, he's worried you're a bit... reckless..." Cisco offered.

"And impulsive," Barry continued nervously, "Among several... _other_...things."

The three of them put down their forks and gauged my reaction.

"I _am_ reckless and impulsive," I answered, after thinking it over for a moment, "I've _always_ been that way. That's how things just work for me - I see opportunities to make things work, and I take them and deal with the consequences later."

Cisco sighed.

"And that's a very strong quality to have, Katniss," he described solemnly, "But, even I can admit I agree with him on that part, because the work we're doing is pretty dangerous. And you're mad smart - nobody can deny that - but... we can't have anyone hurt because of your brashness."

"Then again, you're a very quick problem solver. I've read about you, you know, and we do think we need someone like you on the team," Caitlin responded with a gentle smile, "And trust me - Dr. Wells _does_ appreciate your intelligence. He can't turn you down once he sees how much good you're doing."

Someone like you on the team...

"So, describe this team," I began.

"Well, you saw what we were doing the other night, right?" Cisco asked.

"Yeah - you were talking to Barry through some kind of radio system. You were guiding him through the metahuman strike. What was that about?"

Caitlin, Cisco and I looked to Barry. He bit the side of his lip, and faced away, and shook his head no.

"Oh.." Caitlin murmured, "Well, that's for him to tell you. But anyways, we're sort of.. helping the Flash fight metahumans."

"Well, I knew that already."

"You did?"

"Caitlin, I'm not that stupid," I answered, giving her a pitiful smile. She smiled back at me.

"We couldn't keep this from you, could we?"

"So, who is he? The Flash, I mean."

"You'll find out soon enough," Barry assured, getting up, "May I, um, have some more?"

"Of course," I assured, handing the casserole over to him, "Would you guys like some of this pasta? I can't eat it by myself."

Cisco nodded his head, and Caitlin rolled her eyes at him. I smiled at them and reheated the pasta, and brought it back to them.

"So, do I know him?"

"Know who?" Cisco asked, drinking some water.

"The Flash. Do I know who he is in real life?"

" _Do_ you?" Caitlin asked, eyeing my skeptically.

"I don't know," I asserted, "Is he _cute_?"

"What?" Cisco pressed.

"Is he cute? Come on guys - I'm wasting away in here. I'm in my twenties. I've spent my entire life behind textbooks and lab counters. It can't hurt to go out, can it?"

"With a _metahuman_?" Barry asked, "Why don't you try dating an actual human being first, before you move onto a superpowered subspecies affected by dark matter fallout?"

"And I do believe you have your first volunteer," Cisco added smoothly, pointing his spoon at Barry, who rolled his eyes at his friends.

"What can I say?" I joked, "I'm an overachiever."

Barry studied me, and shook his head again with a helpless smile.

"Dr. Wells was right about her. She'll ruin us."

"She'll ruin _you_ , maybe, but she's harmless to the rest of us."

"I'm going to ruin you? Why? What's wrong with Barry?"

"See, getting hit by lightning made him extremely susceptible," Caitlin explained, though I could tell she was making fun of him.

"Susceptible to what?"

"Cute, smart, badass girls," Cisco explained, poking Barry with his fork. Barry glared at him.

"My bad, Barry," I confessed, "Should I call an ambulance? Or should Caitlin and I leave?"

Caitlin and Cisco turned and laughed at me in amazement, and Barry facepalmed himself.

Before I could react, Cisco dashed out of my dining room, and came back with a small box that contained the cake I had bought earlier that day.

"Dessert? For my beloved guests?"

"Such a kind host!" I teased, getting up to help him.

"Why is it that whenever someone comes to check up on you, you end up feeding them?" Barry asked.

"Van Kleiss hospitality. Nobody ever came to our house and left with an empty stomach back when my parents were alive. That included Dr. Wells."

"That included who?" Caitlin questioned in disbelief.

"Dr. Wells. He was a friend of my parents - didn't he tell you that?"

"No?" Cisco answered, "I mean, we knew he's worked with the Van Kleiss', but we assumed that's as far as the relationship went?"

"It's not a night without a plot twist, now, is it?" I said with a smile, "Obviously this was more than a couple years ago, but Dr. Wells was on good terms with both of my parents. He'd be over for dinner for a few nights."

"That's interesting..." Cisco mused, "More than interesting. Caitlin - we need to use this somehow."

Caitlin nodded at him, before facing me.

"We forgot to tell you your half of the plan."

"Oooh. What do I get to do? Do I, like, get to stakeout undercover at STAR Labs? Hide and eavesdrop on you guys while you're with Wells?"

"Umm-"

"Or - no, you'll give me some super advanced high-tech device that will let me see and hear everything you do from afar. Like a portable security system, or goggles that can see through walls, or something."

"Well, not exactl-"

"Dramatically guilt-trip Dr. Wells into accepting me by tearfully reminding him of his friendship with my parents, and how they'd disapprove of how he's treating me!"

"Artem -"

"Or wait! I can totally, like, fake being in trouble and Dr. Wells can direct the Flash on how to come get me, and when we both come back to the Lab, we can totally fess up and tell him we staged it, and he'll just feel soooo ashamed. Like, hell yeah, we caught you red-handed, you little sneak! How does that sound?"

Barry and Cisco both gave me pitiful smiles, and Caitlin seemed taken aback.

"We actually just need you to stay out Dr. Wells' hair," Cisco explained, "Be nice to him. Obey what he says. Leave if you're asked."

"Because we just need you to be on good terms with him, until we work everything out. Don't even risk him throwing you out before that." Barry added.

"And he can't really take you off the team once you're on it, so after that, we'll all be set." Caitlin finalized, "He'll no longer see you as a threat to the team, and we'll all be happy!"

"Me?" I scoffed, "A threat? I'm sorry - I still can't believe that."

Cisco smiled at Caitlin and Barry before pulling out his phone.

"Oh - hold up. I got this," he began, as he started to read something off of the screen, "Blake Nelson, Newark, New Jersey. A broken leg, seventeen stitches across the torso. Dalton Tate, also from New Jersey. Poor Dalton need six new tooth transplants. Elma Chung, Jersey as well. You managed to crack her sternum. These are only three of the fifteen children you have been reported for physical assault, all of which you did before your tenth birthday."

" _Tenth_ birthday?" Barry asked in shock, looking at me in a new light.

"But wait - there's more!" Cisco announced. Caitlin cleared her throat beside him and read off of her phone.

"Your stepsiblings at the time - Kristin and Leslie Lee - feared you, like you were a monster. You'd bully and harass them as well, tell them lightning phantoms would kill them in their sleep, and were cited on several occasions as being a disruptive, violent, unrestrained and altogether a very uncontrollable child."

"Hey, guys! Come on!" I protested, "I was, like, ten at the time! Won't the ' _I was heavily traumatized by the loss of both parents_ ' excuse cut it for me?"

"And that doesn't even touch the tip of the iceberg," Cisco added, "You have destroyed public and private property, and racked up several thousands of dollars worth in repair charges by the time you were-"

"Stop," I ordered, though I found it in myself to smile at them, "I get where this is going. Jersey, Virginia, Colorado. Dr. Wells doesn't want me on the team because he thinks I'm a freak because of my past."

"No." Cisco countered, "Dr. Wells doesn't want you on the team because you're too tough for him. And not only that - you're smart. Too smart."

"Oh please. He's a world-reknown physicist. I'm just a college graduate. I haven't a dollar to my name."

Barry spewed his water across the table, and Cisco and Caitlin fell silent with shock at my words. Barry mumbled an apology and wiped away at his mess with a napkin.

"Not a _dollar_ to your name, Artemis?" Caitlin pleaded.

"Your name is Van Kleiss. That automatically dubs you a supergenius," Cisco remarked.

"Both of your parents won Nobel Prizes. And you - despite your disturbing past - managed to knock out as one of the best students in the entire nation. You've won several awards in -"

"Oh, please _remind_ me!" I begged sarcastically, "I'm _feeding_ off of your praise right now."

"No, seriously, though," Barry added, "He hasn't said it up front, but we think he's afraid you'll... take over his work, or something like that."

"How very mature of him," I replied snarkily.

"Barry might be right," Caitlin persisted, "We can't seem to figure out any other reason why Dr. Wells would be so hesitant to add you to the team."

"Well, Dr. Wells has nothing to worry about," I announced, leaning back in my chair, "My parents' lab in Cambridge is left entirely to me. If I wanted to take over someone's work and command a lab, I've got one of my own back home."

"So why did you come here, then?" Cisco asked.

"Because," I said with a sigh, "I made a promise to my mother. During one of her last moments alive. We had agreed we wouldn't reopen the lab until we found who killed my father, and brought the murderer to justice. I thought that by coming to Central City, I could find some answers here. Plus - I had some serious respect for Dr. Wells at the time, you know, him being a friend of my parents and inventing the particle accelerator and whatnot."

Cisco and Caitlin both looked down, then turned to Barry.

"Then you did the right thing," Caitlin asserted, squeezing my hand.

"Dr. Wells may be a jerk to you, but you're going to get your job back. We'll help you with that," Cisco promised, "And - we promise - together, we will find whoever killed your parents. And your mother, Barry. We're a team."

I smiled at him.

"You may have lost your family, Artemis," Caitlin continued, "But it would mean the world to us if you accepted us as your own."

"Did I ever tell you guys you're the best things in existence?" I questioned softly, amazed at how supportive they all were.

"No, but it wouldn't hurt if you said it more often," Cisco responded, smiling casually.

"A team, huh?" I asked, "So, does this team have a name, or something?"

"Well, we're currently going with Team Flash, but we're totally open to suggestions," Cisco affirmed.

"No, no. Team Flash is fine," I assured, before breaking into a grin, "Now, if the Flash could, like, dash into the room and join us for this heartfelt occasion, I'd totally feed him."

"Sorry, but he can't really be here right now," Barry answered, shaking his head.

"No?"

"No," Barry said apologetically, "But, I mean, I could totally take some of this food to give to him if you'd li-"

I ruffled his hair.

"Nice try, Allen. You know you're welcome to eat as much as you want, anyway," I guarunteed, looking at how the servings trays for both the two main courses and the dessert are almost clean, "Not that there's much left. Barry, how _much_ did you eat?!"

Cisco and Caitlin laughed as Barry tried to make a feeble excuse.

I stepped up from my chair and hugged all three of them in a makeshift hug around their shoulders, and Caitlin persisted on helping me clean up. The four of us spent the rest of the evening just conversing and laughing, and before I knew it, it was time to go.

"Alright, see you around, _Team Flash_ ," I said, holding the door open for my friends. Caitlin grabbed me and pulled me into a tight, warm hug, and I hugged her back. She pulled away and Cisco did the same.

Barry stood away from me and awkwardly scratched his head, before holding a fist out for a fistbump.

"What's the matter with you?" I jeered, stubbornly holding my arms open for him.

"I - a fistbump is fine. We don't have to hug."

"Barry," Caitlin ordered in an easy voice, "Hug her. She fed you. And you weren't even invited."

Barry dropped his fist and sighed with a small smile before walking into my embrace, and held me tightly against his shoulders.

" _Artemarry_ ," Cisco sang in a small voice, "Caitlin, I totally get where Eddie is coming from with thi-"

"See? This is why we can't have nice things!" Barry protested.

I pulled away from Barry and gently punched Cisco in the arm.

"Ow!" he exclaimed, "Watch it! I'm a delicate human being!"

"Group hug!" Caitlin offered, as she stepped forward and pulled all of us in. I yelped as I somehow found myself squished in between her and Barry, and Cisco managed to free one arm.

"If we don't take a selfie, did it actually happen?" he asked, and Caitlin and Barry hugged me from both sides as all four of us smiled at Cisco's phone. Another round of awkward hugs and goodbyes later, and I found myself alone in my apartment, smiling to myself.

Team Flash was going to be amazing.

I couldn't help but wonder who the Flash was, though.

###

I decided to dedicate the next day to formulate my part of Caitlin's and Cisco's plan - winning Dr. Wells back.

My stepmother, Miranda Walker, who was responsible for me knowing how to cook, always advised that the fastest way to a man's heart was through his stomach.

Lin, her husband, told me it was with a knife through his chest.

As much as I would have liked to follow Lin's advice in dealing with Dr. Wells, Miranda was clearly the more feasible option at the time. Caitlin said Dr. Wells loved beef, for some strange reason, and also almond cake. I got cooking, and while waiting for the dishes to finish up, I continued to plan out my days at STAR Labs.

Dr. Wells would probably keep me away from any metahuman or Flash-related activities, seeing how 'reckless and impulsive' I was, so I'd need other work to do to pass the time.

I sighed and went to my room - the second bedroom which I had slowly but surely been designing, and walked over to my bookshelf, which held some of my favorite books. I plopped down on my bed with an old classic, but my mind wasn't interested in the words.

My parents would have known what to do in a situation like this.

My parents!

How could I have been so stupid?

They had left the entire field of artificial chemistry unfinished when they were killed, and there were so many undiscovered secrets left when it came to vankleissium - the element that they had discovered!

I got up and went back to my shelf, pulling out all of the books my parents had published, and looked through them.

I had no idea if Dr. Wells would let me use his lab to conduct my own independent experiments and tests, but what was the harm in asking?

If he said no, it's not like it would make a difference in our relationship - he detested me anyway. Staying out of his unkempt black hair might give him some breathing room and let him see me in a new light.

And if he said yes to my request, which I prayed he would, then I would not only be taking a step towards finishing my parents' work, but maybe I could approach the metahuman issue - how to stop them for good, strip them of their powers, put an end to their reign of terror in this poor city.

Alright - I'd definitely need a metahuman to experiment on, and I doubted the Flash would stop by, but that was an issue for another day.

I took out the dishes I had made for Dr. Wells - Mediterranean-style beef stew and a double-layered almond cake, along with smaller, separate proportions for a certain thief of mine, and made my way over to Cisco's place for the first time.

After locating his townhome in a separate part of the complex, I knocked on his door. No answer. He was at the Lab today, I remembered, and welcomed myself with my keys into his home - which was both impeccably neat and impossibly messy. Neat as in everything was stored away - his kitchen, floor, and living room area were immaculate and spotless. Messy, as in there were papers and notes littered all across the dining room table, the coffee table, and around his shelves. This house clearly belonged to a dedicated scientist.

I located his car keys hanging from a hook, and left a note telling him I was stealing his car, and left the smaller ration of food for him on his counter as a thank-you.

Dr. Wells would be at home today, my friends had told me yesterday. And I planned to have a talk with him.

Rolling Cisco's car into an affluent neighborhood, with huge houses and expensive cars, I located the address Caitlin had given me, and parked in the huge driveway overlooked by a modern-style stone house.

I felt awash with nervousness all of a sudden - this would be the first time I'd be seeing Dr. Wells since he had furiously kicked me out of the Lab.

Would he be mad at me for coming over to his home without an invitation? Would he take it the wrong way, as me being snobby or pushy, or trying to be manipulative? Would it only aggravate him further, as he did seem to be incredibly moody around me?

Relax, I ordered myself. You have pure intentions, and whatever happens - will happen. And nobody ever turned away someone with an apology and food.

I walked up the path to the door of the elaborate home, and knocked. The door opened almost immediately, revealing Dr. Wells in his wheelchair.

Funny, I mused. How could he have answered the door so quickly in a wheelchair, unless he had been there the entire time?

Dr. Wells gave me a shocked and confused look.

"Oh - hello, sir," I offered awkwardly, "I'd just wanted to stop by and apologize to you. For my behavior last week?"

"You did?" Dr. Wells asked, seeming surprised by my statement, "By all means, come inside."

Dr. Wells drove his wheelchair further into his modern, elegant home, and I followed, closing the door behind me. He had such a nice house - dark, marble floor, black walls lined with huge paintings, neat shelves with books and conventional sculptures.

"I made you something," I stated, trying to keep my voice calm and kind as I held up the serving dishes. Dr. Wells turned and eyed me cautiously, before breaking into a gratified smile.

"Well, now. That's really quite kind of you. If you could, could you leave it in the dining room?" He asked. I complied and left towards the room he gestured to, and returned. I sat in a leather armchair facing opposite his wheelchair.

"How have you been, since I last saw you, Ms. Van Kleiss?" He asked flatly, giving me a reluctant smile.

"I've been well," I started, maintaining my composure, "I, uhh, I really did feel bad about being so suspicious and rude to you the other day. It really was unlike me."

Dr. Wells arched an eyebrow up at me. I took it as a cue to continue.

"The metahuman attack must have just stressed me out. I promise I won't disobey you, or question your orders, again. I understand that everything that happens at STAR Labs is the way you want it, and as my employer and a respected physicist, I should know better than to challenge your ways."

Dr. Wells broke into a silent laugh.

"Oh dear. You sound exactly like your father."

"I do?"

"You think I don't know where you got your rebellious streak from?" he inquired fondly, giving me what I hoped was a genuine grin, "The kind of things Laurus would say to get out of trouble, only to wile his way back into it."

I smiled, before I realized what Dr. Wells was implying.

"Oh - no. I meant what I said. I've given it a lot of time to think over, and I'm okay with you excluding me from certain tasks. From here on out, I'm only going to comply with what you expect of me."

"Is that so?"

"Dr. Wells, if you truly knew my father, you'd know he couldn't lie to save his life," I answered with an easy smile. It was true - I was never able to lie without getting caught, and my father had been the same.

Dr. Wells' eyes twinkled, and he nodded.

"Yes, I guess you're right," he conceded, folding his hands in his lap, "But, see, this is where a problem begins. I might have to expel you from the lab on several occasions, without warning. You may be without work for several days at a time. And - I'm really not sure how to tell you - but I do believe I may have to relieve you of your duties, if I'm not able to keep you at the lab at all. And I don't want to do that."

"Wait, so you never intended to have me in on T-" I almost said Team Flash. Cisco and Caitlin had warned me not to let Dr. Wells know they had spilled their secrets to me, "on your other operations?"

"I am afraid not, Ms. Van Kleiss."

My heart sank once again, as I tried to choose my words carefully.

"Well, that's fine. But - could you atleast tell me what it is that I'm at risk of, that Caitlin, Cisco and Barry aren't?"

As in, what sets them apart from me? Other than my 'reckless and impulsive' behavior? What gives them the chance to help you out like that?

Dr. Wells' looked away and sighed, taking off his glasses. He pondered for a moment before answering, and placing them back on.

"It's actually more of a selfish reason, really," he explained, "Both of your parents were good friends of mine. I had initially wanted you at my lab, because you have proven to take on after them in several ways, but some of the work we do just might be too dangerous. Lives have been lost, Ms. Van Kleiss. And you are young. You have your entire life ahead of you. I don't know how I could live with myself if something happened to you, when I have been entrusted with caring for you."

His voice sounded kind, but I didn't believe him. He barely knew me - how could he claim to have become so attached to me already?

My parents had been dead for several years now. If he said he was looking out for me for their sake, he should have done it earlier, when I had trouble finding a home.

He's lying to me again, I realized fearfully, though I wasn't sure why I felt so afraid of a helpless physicist all of a sudden.

Work your way around this carefully, Artemis.

"Dr. Wells, I'm well aware of the danger of metahumans, and I honestly do not mind the risk of the situation," I construed hopefully, "I plan on using my life to help others, and I believe STAR Labs is the perfect place for me to execute that."

Dr. Wells studied me carefully. Did he sense that I caught his bluff?

"You don't believe me," he stated surly with a grudging smile, as if he was in pain, "And I can't blame you. I've been secretive around you during your time here. You and I have a strained relationship, which I did not intend, but I still had a close bond with your parents. I'm keeping you safe for them, Artemis. And I refuse to involve you in our private operations. End of discussion."

The cold light in Dr. Wells' eyes was unforgiving and stern - I know I won't be able to get out of this, even though I'm certain he's feeding me bull.

Time to implement Plan B.

"Fine," I gave in, "I promised I wouldn't challenge your decisions, so I won't. But I think I still have a lot to offer STAR Labs."

"How so?" Dr. Wells challenged.

"You're catching the metahumans, and developing methods to take them down, from what I know. But you're not doing anything to take their abilities away for good, so they're still a threat regardless of whether or not they're in the Pipeline. And - you agree that what I'm saying is true, right?"

"I concur," Dr. Wells agreed, "What do you have in mind?"

I pulled out _Vankleissium and the Basis of Artificial Chemistry_ , a book my parents had written together, and handed it to Dr. Wells, and leaned forward.

"I was hoping you would let me conduct my own independent experiments at STAR Labs. I want to figure out how to use vankleissium - and the ecfranite particle - to strip metahumans of their abilities."

Dr. Wells' eyes lit up and he paused flipping through the book.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, that's... a _spectacular_ idea," he mused, surprised. I broke into a disbelieving smile. For once, Dr. Wells was on the same page as me.

"Really?"

"Yes, yes, I -" he muttered, shaking his head in awe, "Why didn't I think of that? I should have thought of that,"

"So you'll let me stay?" I questioned cautiously, "At STAR Labs?"

"Absolutely," he assured, and I followed him as he wheeled himself into his kitchen.

"There is so much that element has to offer," Dr. Wells pondered, as he poured two glasses of red wine, "It could change the face of how we deal with metahumans altogether. Once again, a member of the Van Kleiss family has astounded me with their intellect."

He handed me one of the glasses, and I reluctantly took it. I never had alcohol before in my life, and I definitely did not know what to make of myself drinking with Dr. Wells, but I couldn't ruin the progress I had made with him.

"Once again, I was wrong about you," Dr. Wells stated in his raspy voice, as he held his glass up, a silent offer for me to touch mine to his. I did so, and hesitantly brought the glass to my lips, before my conscience forced me to pull my hand away.

"I - I'm sorry, Dr. Wells. I don't mean to be rude," I apologized, putting the glass on the counter, "But I don't drink."

After taking a sip of his own glass, Dr. Wells put his own glass down.

"Oh..." he muttered apologetically, "My bad. I should have asked before inferring -"

"No, no. It's fine. You're not to blame here," I assured quickly, not wanting to ruin the friendship I had just rebuilt with him.

"Would you like to eat?" I asked instead, pointing towards the dishes I had placed on his table.

Dr. Wells smiled at me.

"What did you bring me?" he asked, turning his wheelchair towards a low cabinet, from which he retrieved plates and utensils.

I walked over to the table and uncovered the dishes. The warm, comforting aroma of cooked meat loafed from the dish, and caught Dr. Wells' attention.

"Just some beef stew. And a bit of almond cake," I explained, "I heard you enjoyed them, so I figured I might as well bring you something if I was going to drop by."

"You are something else altogether, Ms. Van Kleiss," Dr. Wells stated, though he smiled, "You didn't need to do this."

I gave him a small smile back.

"Does _everyone_ in Central City hate being fed?!" I joked.

"Certainly not Cisco," Dr. Wells scoffed, and I laughed at his words.

"Won't you be joining me?" He asked, gesturing towards the second empty plate he had brought.

"Ahh - no, I'm good," I answered with a shake of my head.

Dr. Wells smiled at me, and helped himself to the beef stew, washing it down with the wine. After a few bites, he spoke up.

"This tastes exactly like how your mother used to make it!" He complimented ecstatically, "I haven't had stew like this since she was alive."

I laughed at his words.

"Yeah, wouldn't it do _her_ a good one to hear you say that," I responded. Dr. Wells nodded at me.

"It certainly would. You're growing up to become just like your parents."

"Dr. Wells - that actually means a lot to me. That you'd say that."

"And it certainly means a lot to me that I'm on good terms with you again. I have no idea how your parents would react if they were still alive and saw the way I have to treat you."

"Yeah, I'm more than certain they'd skewer you alive," I said with a gentle chuckle. Dr. Wells' eyes twinkled at me.

"So, just to be clear, you'll let me stay at STAR Labs full-time, right?" I asked. He wiped his mouth with a napkin and shook his head no. My morale dropped with disappointment.

"No. I'm sorry about that. Unfortunately, there _will_ still be instances when I will have to ask you to leave unexpectedly."

I slowly nodded my head.

"But you will have full access to anything you need, for your experiments and whatnot. You'll have my full support," Dr. Wells assured.

"Thank you, sir."

"Actually, you are welcome to come back to the lab tomorrow. I think it's best if you maximize your time there, seeing as how you can't stay there as often as my other scientists."

"Really?" I asked enthusiastically. This had to mean something, right? Full access to the lab, aside from when Team Flash was in action? With his full support?

This was progress!

Dr. Wells chuckled.

"Yes. Really," he replied, "Although you understand you _will_ have to leave when asked."

"Understood. It's a small price to pay on the path of winning my own Nobel," I retorted jokingly. Dr. Wells concurred, and we spent the rest of the afternoon talking, and bonding over the one thing we had in common - our passion for science, and our memories with my parents. He recalled his most memorable instances with them, and told me funny stories about them that I hadn't heard before. I also shared memories of quirky things the two of them used to do, and how the duo was an unlikely match - with my easygoing, gentle father and my sharp, witty mother - but still managed to be the greatest team ever.

We also discussed some of the more ridiculous achievements in the scientific world, and shared our own opinions on them.

I couldn't believe what was happening - I had seemingly won Dr. Wells back over, although he still hid secrets from me.

But it was a start. It was better than nothing, and I would work with it until Dr. Wells trusted me enough to let me work with the Flash as well.

"Well, thank you for allowing me to come over, sir," I said, getting up, "I really should be going."

"Why? Did you have somewhere to be?" Dr. Wells questioned incredulously, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh, uhh, I offered to babysit my neighbor's kid for her," I lied. While I appreciated his hospitality, I'd feel uncomfortable if I stayed past my warranted amount of time.

"How thoughtful of you," Dr. Wells commented with a small smile, and we made our way out of his kitchen together.

"I can't help but notice you're becoming increasingly close with Mr. Allen," he stated.

Oh, god. Not him too.

"Yes, he's a rather interesting person," I answered flatly.

"I'm sure by now, you must have heard of how he lost his mother?"

I paused in place, and nodded my head.

"He lost her the same way I lost both of my parents," I replied, before realizing something absurd, "I can't help but notice how funny it all is."

"Funny?" Dr. Wells questioned.

"Not funny as in hilarious. Funny as in strange," I explained, "We both lost our mothers to speedsters on the same exact night, and now, here we both are. In Central City. Where there is a speedster. And we're both scientists, dedicated to stopping metahumans. I would be lying to you if I didn't admit I find it a bit terrifying. I mean, this _can't_ be a series of coincidences that everything is working out this way."

Dr. Wells nodded his head.

"Dr. Wells, would you happen to know how many speedsters there are here?"

He pursed his lips and thought it over before answering.

"Only the Flash, as far I'm concerned."

I nodded my head at him, letting his words sink in.

Finally - one of us brought up the Flash.

"Is there... is there a reason why you're keeping me away from the Flash?"

"Ms. Van Kleiss, I'm not sure what else to say, other than the fact that I have lost your father and your mother to a speedster. The Flash is... an interesting being, and I am unsure of what would happen if the two of you met."

"Oh," I replied, though I found his answer rather vague. Dr. Wells took his glasses off and looked at me with sharp blue eyes.

"What I'm saying is - I wouldn't want for you to engage in anything that could result in your death. I can't make it any simpler than that."

"So the Flash wants to _kill_ me?!"

What was Dr. Wells saying? That by coming to Central City, I made myself vulnerable to the Flash? That he'd kill me, just like he had killed my father and my mother, alongside the yellow speedster?

But - but Caitlin, Cisco, Barry and Iris all said he was on the good guys' side!

For Pete's sake, they _worked_ with him at STAR Labs! They knew him!

Would they know of his intentions with me? Was he truly a malevolent being? I _had_ to figure out who he was, then! What did _my_ family ever do to him and the yellow speedster?

Was this why Dr. Wells kept us away from each other? Because the Flash could be a murderer? But - but how did they know he was the same speedster from the night my mother died?

Artemis, are you flipping _stupid_? How often would you come across a demon like him? He _has_ to be the same speedster from that dreadful night, regardless of whether or not he's renowned for saving people from metahumans _now_. And the other speedster - the yellow one - is probably here too, then.

They're working together, I realized with a shudder. This city was worshipping a murderer...

My own _friends_ were fooled into believing that the Flash was a hero...

"I wouldn't know of that, Ms. Van Kleiss," Dr. Wells answered calmly, "But I'm trying to keep you out of that kind of danger before I find your blood on my hands."

* * *

 **[Dr. Wells's POV]**

A hand through the heart.

That's all it would take to end her life.

A simple, quick, painless shot of my fingers into and back out of her chest, and she'd be dead.

"Oh, well, thank you again, Dr. Wells," Artemis greeted, worry shining through her eyes behind her glasses.

"Not at all. It was my pleasure to have you here," I replied with a smile, "Thank you again for the food. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow indeed."

The girl smiled at me, and I watched as she opened my front door, and left, closing the door behind her. I paused and waited to hear her drive off, before getting out of my wheelchair and standing up, stretching my legs.

God, how I hated siting in that thing. Even if it was making me more powerful by the hour, recharging my speed to make up for my time sitting, I passionately resented being handicapped.

I walked back over to my dining table, and finished up the rest of the Mediterranean beef stew.

 _"This tastes exactly how your mother used to make it!"_ I had told her, easing my way back into her respect.

It was pitiful - how easily she believed my lies and how quickly I had won my way back into her heart - by lying to her about my relationship with her parents.

Truthfully, I had never met or seen either of them - aside from the nights I had killed them, that is.

I was sick of the ruse, sick of having to wait for everything to happen on its own rather than forcing her and Barry into complying with what I had wanted, but I had to bide my time, or they both would upset the timeline and the future I knew might be erased.

Cisco and Caitlin were obedient and trusted me more than they trusted themselves.

Barry Allen looked up to me like a father.

I had all three of them in the palm of my hand, but Artemis?

Artemis would take time to work with. And I was afraid of what she would discover or learn in that time.

She was nothing more than a silly engineer, but she was poised, and she was intelligent. And even though she had a horrible temper and was the worst liar I had ever seen - babysitting your neighbor's son? Please - there was no way of knowing when she would flare up.

And she was onto me. She suspected me of something, though she didn't know what. And I had to be cautious of that.

Of course, there was no way she knew my real secret, but if she continued, soon she would find out, and seek to destroy me.

Cisco, Caitlin and Barry had taken a strong liking to her - despite my warnings. She had come into their lives and quickly befriended them, winning their trust faster than Barry ever did.

I should have known better than to foolishly warn them of something so absurd - she's _conniving, manipulative, deceitful_.

She showed up at STAR Labs sweet, well-mannered, and kind, eager to begin working.

The three of them could _never_ have believed what I had told them about her, what with how easygoing and friendly Artemis was with them, how compatible she was proving herself to be at STAR Labs.

But one day, this girl would become so much more than a scientist, and she would pose a threat to us that not even the Flash, or myself, could overcome.

See, there is so little information about her, in the time period where I came from. She was a mystery - a very powerful one, nonetheless.

I had tried to kill her parents, after years of sending them useless threats, so they wouldn't discover how vankleissium worked. When Barry stopped me, I tried to ruin her life the same way I had ruined his - by killing her beloved mother, hoping it would keep her from science. Somehow, her father's foolish lawyer found her and set her back on track, and I knew now I had to stop her.

The best I could do was bring her here, where I could easily keep an eye on her. And it was true - for now, she was as harmless as the child she had saved from SilverShock the other day.

But I was more afraid of her quick-thinking. Within a week of working at my lab, she had figured out we were allied with the Flash. What's worse - she had already figured out Barry was the Flash, and it was thanks to _his_ smooth denial that she finally believed he wasn't.

How long would it take her to figure out I was the man who had killed her parents? She already seemed to suspect that there was more than one speedster in this city.

Of course - I could always kill her myself if it came to that. How I wish she had taken a sip of the poisoned wine I offered her, or eaten some of the food she had brought, so I could put an end to this stress right then and there, having laced the wine with X7, a deadly poison that dissolved in the system after killing the victim, not leaving a trace.

I should have known that the girl didn't drink...

I should have killed her _now_ , when she came to me with an apology, and easily destroyed her body, ending my misery in mere moments.

There was so much about her I didn't know, and she was proving herself to be rather dangerous. By now, I was certain she'd foil my plans. From the research I had done on her back in my time, I had known she would indeed figure out how to disarm metahumans permanently, but there was no evidence suggesting her methods would work on speedsters, including myself and Barry Allen.

But I wanted her dead. And I wanted to be the one to assure her demise, before things could continue spiraling out of control with her.

If she had been anything like Barry, I could tolerate her. Even though Barry too was destined to stop me, Barry was trusting, Barry was obedient, Barry was predictable.

Artemis shared a few of those qualities - she too was kind, easygoing and composed, but I had pushed her into hating me. Now, because of my own foolishness, she trusted only a few - Cisco, Caitlin, Barry, and Iris.

She despised me, spoke out against me, and mistrusted me and until that changed, she would always be a risk to my ulterior motives.

Now, however, she was trying to win me back, and vice versa, I thought with a chuckle.

The hidden security cameras I had installed at her home showed me every last detail of her dinner last night, with Caitlin, Cisco and Barry. The trio urged her to calm down, and listen to me, be kind and obedient so as to win my trust, and they themselves promised to try and convince me to let her join Team Flash.

How strangely the tables have turned. We went from being on good terms with each other when we first met - to almost immediately ruining that when I had kicked her out of the lab.

And now, we were both trying to fix things again.

And in the future, she would hate me almost, if not more, than the Flash would - she would be more powerful than the both of us combined - and I would continue to hate her as well.

I feared her now more than I would ever fear Barry Allen. If you were to compare the two - when Barry wasn't the Flash, to be clear - she was his better in every way, and would have made a much better Flash. She was smarter than him, stronger than him, more agile and fit as she was. She would have been the perfect Flash.

It took Barry several months of training and exploring his new abilities to become comfortable in his new role. Artemis Van Kleiss would have reveled in her new powers, and it was that that made me glad I had chosen him over her. Barry was gentle, cautious, and careful whereas she was quick, rebellious and uncontrollable. Barry still feared his own abilities, relied on me to teach him. Artemis, on the other hand, would have been unstoppable.

I would let her live, for now, I concluded, and let her play her little experiments on the vankleissium and the ecfranite particle. For some reason, the element didn't exist in the future, so I had no way of figuring out how to use it myself.

When she would figure out how to strip metahumans of their metahuman gene, then I'd get rid of her.

Permanently.


	11. The Second Speedster

**[Artemis' POV]**

"Cisco, open up!" I called out from the other side of his door.

"No!" a muffled voice called out stubbornly from the other side.

"Don't be such a girl," I insisted, trying not to laugh, "Open _up_."

Finally the door opened up just a few inches, and Cisco glared at me from the gap. I held up his car keys and smiled. He angrily snatched them from me.

"Tell me you're joking," I retorted, "You're the most easygoing person I've met."

"Give me _one_ reason to forgive you for taking my precious Maserati out without asking..."

I chuckled. Cisco drove an old sedan. He was messing with me again. I reached a hand in and ruffled up his hair, before leaning in.

"You want a reason?" I taunted playfully, "Go take a look in my kitchen, and tell me who takes my food without asking, without retribution."

Cisco narrowed his eyes at me, before breaking into a smile and opening the door fully.

"Even if I wanted to, I couldn't stay mad at you," he remarked with a happy sigh, "Did you want to come inside?"

"I already did," I answered sheepishly, "when you were at work."

Cisco raised an eyebrow at me. I beamed innocently at him.

"I left something for you on your counter as an apology for my sudden theft, though," I explained.

"I know," he admitted, facing the kitchen and nodding, "I found it. Thanks."

"You know it's not an issue," I answered.

"You really should come inside," he persisted, "You promised me a video game match. I plan on stealing your Corporal Ranks, you know."

"Not a chance," I replied coolly, "You'd end up crying when I'd steal yours. Besides, I actually have to go do some work for the Lab."

"I thought you had the week off?"

"Not anymore," I chirped with a smile, "Guess who just won her way back onto Dr. Wells' good side?"

"Hey - Nice, nice!" Cisco responded, impressed. He gave me a high five, "So what are you going to be doing, then?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but I have a plan," I responded. I told him what I had in mind.

"Artemis - that is both incredibly insane, and ground-breaking," Cisco muttered, "You'd be onto something _huge_."

"Yeah, well, first I gotta go home and get started," I confessed, turning away to leave, "See you later, bro?"

"Bro?! Oh, don't friendzone _me_ too!" He complained, giving me a pitiful smile with his adorable brown eyes, as he closed his door and walked me out.

"What happened to being a die-hard over, what was it called? Artemisarry?"

"Artemarry?" Cisco offered, "Yeah, see that was only because you're easy to mess with. Now, if you're saying you actually _would_ romantically prefer a certain 6 foot 2, green-eyed, brown haired friend of mine-"

"Cisco?" I interrupted.

"Yes?"

"Shut up."

"Oh," Cisco murmured, realization settling in his eyes, "So it's true, then."

"So what's true?" I asked, turning around so he wouldn't see me blush. He caught up to me and smiled coyly.

"That you _do_ like Barry."

"As a friend, yes," I conceded, keeping my voice steady so he wouldn't sense my facade.

"Liar. You like him more than tha-"

I stopped and suddenly faced him, startling him.

"I don't. I swear."

"So why are you so neurotic about it?"

"Because you're so pesky about it," I said, giving him a cunning smile, before pulling him into a light choke hold, and ruffling up his hair. He protested and I laughed, and when I released him, his hair was a wild mess.

"Geez, why do you always go for my hair?" He scorned with a laugh.

"Because," I pointed out, "You have the nicest hair ever."

"Really now?"

"Yes."

"Nicer than Caitlin's?"

"Yes."

"Nicer than yours?"

"Absolutely."

"Even nicer than Barry's?"

"Yes. Much nicer than Barry's," I retorted, giving his hair a final ruffle before grabbing him in a quick hug, and ordering him to go back.

"Alright, see you tomorrow, Artemis."

"Mhmm. Bye, Cisco."

With that, I made my way back to my own home, where I settled down with a clean notebook, scientific texts, and a warm cup of tea. I looked through the various articles and reports on vankleissium, and took notes, wondering how I could go about my wild plan - to extract the metahuman gene from the metahumans, make them entirely human again.

Metahumans. Metahumans. Metahumans.

I thought of the only three metahumans I had seen so far - the Flash, Smoke Ghost, and the silver earthquaker.

Each and every one of them had disappeared. The Flash was on good terms with STAR Labs, though, and helped them stop crimes. Cisco, Caitlin and Barry knew who he was, so they knew _where_ he was as well. Cisco and Caitlin both hinted that I knew who he was too.

I thought back to the attacks, where he had showed up.

Coincidentally, each and every single one of them involved the police, as well as STAR Labs, save for the attack with the earthquaker, or so I presumed.

It finally clicked - the Flash had to be someone who worked with STAR Labs, but _also_ had connections with the police, maybe even worked at the police department, other than Barry, that is. I wondered who else was an authorized guest at the Lab...

Of course, this was just a hunch - it had no evidence behind it. The Flash could be an interior decorator or a preschool teacher for all I knew. But it made sense that he'd be with the police. He always seemed to arrive at the scenes right before they did.

Now - did he arrive before simply because of his speed? Or because STAR Labs alerted him about it?

Probably both.

Okay - maybe I had to scratch out the clue about him working at the police station, though I wasn't willing to give up on it.

The police kept the city safe, but there wasn't much they could do without STAR Labs' help. Andrew Thompson - the young man with abilities to control toxic smoke - had gone completely missing, with no control over his abilities. I hadn't seen him in weeks, but I pitied him. He was such a powerful young being, though he was full of angst. He wanted his life back - that much I could tell. And the police targeted him, like a criminal, not a young boy. There was so much potential in him, for both bad and good, and it scared me.

The silver earthquaking metahuman was mentally insane - _that_ much I was certain of. I remember how he had torn up almost _all_ of First Street simply to get the Flash's attention, and how he had stalked me and Theodore, promising to kill us while laughing insanely.

And the Flash...

Did he really mean to kill me? Why did Harrison Wells not want us to work with each other? Was I really in danger from him?

Okay, stop for a second.

Dr. Wells was lying about who was in danger from who.

Was _I_ in danger from the Flash? Or were STAR Labs and the Flash in danger from _me_ , as Wells had secretly told Cisco, Caitlin and Barry to justify keeping me off of Team Flash?

Couldn't the Flash and I just sit down and have an easy conversation, over tea or something, and work out our differences?

And maybe I could behead him on the spot for helping the yellow Flash murder my mother?

The yellow speedster...

 _He_ was the one I had not seen yet - the one I was _truly_ anticipating, but I wasn't sure if I was ready to confront him if I saw him. His horrible face, and the black emblem with the backwards red lightning - I remembered them all too clearly, and they still triggered horrible nightmares.

What I remembered the best about him, though, was the horrifying glow of his red eyes, and the ugly grin on his face. He had stabbed my mother so quickly that I had _barely_ seen his arm move - as if that knife _belonged_ in her heart.

By now, I was positive that the yellow speedster, and maybe the Flash, were responsible for the death threats my parents had been receiving when they were alive. For those notes that promised to kill them if they continued their work.

And they finally got what they wanted. My parents had been effectively silenced, their work left unfinished.

And now - here was I - waiting, _without_ any means to protect myself, in the city where the Flash lived, where the Flash had probably _killed_ someone else's mother too, where the Flash would probably want _me_ dead after seeing what I was doing - that I had restarted the work that got my parents killed.

My friends were working with a murderer!

My phone rang, and I was glad for the distraction. I had started to sweat nervously because of my ominous realization. It was Barry.

"Hey, Bear," I spoke into my phone, glad to hear him.

 _(Hi, Artemis,)_ he responded optimistically.

Moment of silence.

"Um, why did you call?"

 _(It's Thursday?)_ He replied doubtfully.

"Err, yes, it is Thursday," I answered, checking my calendar, "Was Thursday, like, an important date or something?"

 _(Yes, it was, actually,)_ Barry replied, _(We were supposed to meet up?)_

"Oh! Right!" I facepalmed myself. How could I have forgotten this?

 _(Can I still come over?)_ Barry voiced politely.

"Yes, yeah! Of course!" I assured quickly, "I, uhh, was just waiting for you!"

 _(Is that true, now?)_ He asked with a small laugh.

"Yes!" I answered with a gulp, "You, um, you took so long that I actually forgot what I was waiting for."

(Oh. My bad,) Barry answered in a kind, but mocking tone, _(I'll be over there in just a second.)_

 _Click._

Eeek. I had forgotten all about Barry asking to come over. I began to slightly panic.

Was my place clean? Yes, I lived by myself and was a neat freak.

Was I supposed to have anything ready? To discuss? Well, geez, I didn't know. I was pretty preoccupied these last few days, pigging out and watching television. The online archive was all I had, anyway.

Was I supposed to have something for him to eat? Oh god - I had given Harrison Wells all of the food I had made! And Cisco and Barry had consumed everything I had made last night - I didn't have any leftovers! I should have saved some! I began to worry, and looked through my pantry and fridge.

Goddammit, Cisco! There's nothing here, except for measly vegetables, a packet of tea bags, toast and a jar of fat-free peanut butter, which tasted like mucky oil!

Was I going to feed Barry plain bread with disgusting peanut butter, offer him a plain salad on the side? Brew him some tea to go along with it?

Wow, that sounded so pathetic. Gahh - what was I going to do?

 _Knock, knock!_

That couldn't be Barry. There was no way he could have gotten here so quickly, right? We just hung up seconds ago...

I _had_ to have imagined the knock.

 _Knock._

There it was again. I nervously smoothed out my shirt before accepting my fate, and answering the door.

As expected - and dreaded - Barry Allen is standing at my door, in a light-colored checkered dress shirt and blue blazer, jeans and sneakers, holding a black briefcase.

"Hey!" He greeted with a sunny smile. I was unable to find my voice. How did he get here so quickly?

"Hi?" I finally managed to respond dryly, stepping out of the way so he could enter. His smile slowly melted as he gauged my reaction.

"Are you okay?"

"Yes," I squeaked solemnly. He turned and gave me a concerned look.

"I could always come back later, if this is a bad time or if you're busy," he assured in a friendly manner.

"No, it's fine," I allowed, closing the door, "I, uhh, was just a bit startled."

"By what?"

"By _you_ ," I responded, smiling at him as I enjoyed the mild shock on his face, clearing my throat and walking past him to where my notes were.

"By me?" He questioned, following me. I turned around to look at him.

"Yes. I didn't think you'd get here _that_ fast," I mused, "What - were you waiting outside my door the entire time, or something?"

"I'm not _that_ creepy, am I?" He answered with that perfect smile of his, sitting down at my kitchen counter. I raised an eyebrow at him, wanting an explanation.

"I was... at Caitlin's place. She just wanted some emotional support for something."

"Oh. Is everything okay with her?" I asked, going into my room to get my laptop. Caitlin needed emotional support? Was something going on?

It then dawned on me how reserved she was, how cautious and careful she was. She was kind and friendly, but a bit too distant.

Something was eating away at her, I realized, and she didn't want to share it. It explained why she seemed so secluded, despite being our friend.

"She... it was just about her fiance. He passed away when the accelerator blew up."

"Oh. That's horrible," I mumbled, sitting beside him.

I remembered now - there was a picture of her and a tall, muscular dark-haired man at her bedside table, when I had to bring her home when she was drunk.

I didn't know he was dead. Was he one of the lab workers Cisco told me had been obliterated by the accelerator?

"She'll be fine. She's strong. We'll work it out," Barry assured, pulling out files from his briefcase.

"Work it out?" I asked. That was a strange choice of words to describe getting over someone. Barry pressed his lips together and sighed.

"I'm not supposed to tell you this, but ... we think he might still be alive," he admitted.

" _Alive_?" I asked, shocked, "Then we should try and find out what happened to him!"

Barry gave me a grudging smile.

"Welcome to the life of a STAR Labs' scientist, Artemis," he teased, "Where nothing makes sense and all you want to do is find answers."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," I muttered, opening up the archive I had made online.

"But, right now, let's work on one mystery before we get started on another," he said, pulling out his notes on his mother's murder, "So... just tell me everything you know?"

I skimmed through the archive - despite the fact that I knew everything that was on it by heart.

"The Flash was there that night, for starters."

"I'm sorry - did you just say that the _Flash_ was there?!"

"I'm certain of it. It's the same style of costume, the same type of speed. I'm more than certain it's him - it's the same person," I pressed.

"But that's not possible! The Flash has only been around for a few months. Your mother's murder - that was over 15 years ago! It can't be him!"

"Then I don't know what to say. All I know is that there were two speedsters. One was red. One was yellow," I told him, pausing the video clip at the part where a yellow ghost had formed by my mother's bedside. Barry leaned forward.

"Have you seen this speedster before?" I inquired.

"No... No, I've never seen him," he mumbled, confused.

"I think he's allied with the Flash, and I think they both want me dead."

"What?!" Barry asked in disbelief, "The Flash does _not_ want you dead."

"How would you know?"

Barry paused and looked at me with wide green eyes.

"Because - I know him! He doesn't murder people, and he definitely would not do anything to hurt _you_ ," he announced, gesturing his chin towards the vase of red roses the Flash had given me.

"What - are you and the Flash, like, close friends or something?" I retorted.

"I guess you could say that?" Barry offered, with a confused smile.

"Barry, who is he? Who could he be?" I asked, "I have so much to ask him, and Dr. Wells has ordered him to stay away from me. I'm stuck."

"I mean, you could ask me?" He observed, "I do know a lot about him."

"You know what I would _like_ to ask you?" I brought up.

"Hopefully, out?"

"What?" I asked, shocked, surprised by his sudden request, "Isn't the guy supposed to ask the girl?"

"I - who said we need to be conventional about it?"

"I'm not asking you anything until Ramon and Thawne leave us alone," I answered, though I kind of liked the fact that he wanted me to ask him out.

"And I was going to say - how do you know that the Flash isn't, like, evil? Or if he has ulterior motives? Personally, I don't exactly trust the fact that we're working with someone who has these kinds of abilities. What if he wants something out of it?"

"Artemis," Barry began, though he was at a loss for words. He put his fist to his mouth, still trying to figure out what to say, before he spoke up.

"One day - you'll know who the Flash is. I promise you that myself. But he's not evil, by any means. He just wants to help people," Barry explained.

"How do we know we can trust him, though?" I asked quietly, "He was _there_ at the scene of my mother's murder. He could have killed my father too - with the help of the yellow speedster."

"Artemis, that's ridiculous."

"You don't believe me?" I asked incredulously, "Barry, I -"

"Artemis, the Flash does _not_ have evil intentions by any means. He's here to use his abilities to help people. You're not in danger from him," Barry assured.

"You know what confuses me, though?"

"What?"

"Why did he kill _your_ mother?" I brought up, "I don't mean to insult you, or anything, but you guys were _completely_ average people. _My_ parents were on the verge of a scientific breakthrough. They had been receiving threats for their work for several years. Why was _your_ mother killed? What did _she_ have to do with any of this?"

Barry sighed and shook his head.

"That's what I've been trying to figure out for several years now."

"How did we manage to miss the fact that there were two murders that night, not one?" I asked, "If the police had figured this out back then, then they could have gotten a lot farther than they had."

"I know," Barry agreed, "But you know what scares me?"

"The fact that fate is a total bitch and plays with scary coincidences?"

"I wouldn't word it like that, but yes," Barry consented, "Fate is a ... bitch. And these coincidences _do_ scare me too."

"Hold on - as crazy as it seems, it could be important," I said, pulling out a piece of paper, "We should list it out. For starters..."

"We both lost our mothers to speedsters."

"And we both live in Central City, where there _is_ a speedster."

"And this speedster is a good guy. Just to be clear."

"But this speedster could be the one who was there when my mother died, and I'm guessing when _your_ mother died as well," I continued, jotting down our words.

"But you don't really have any physical evidence to say that, so it could still be someone else," Barry reminded.

"Well, yes and no. There was another speedster there - a yellow one - with the Flash."

"But the Flash only came to be a few months ago, so again, it couldn't have been him back, then."

"He could have been in hiding all these years, Barry."

"I doubt that."

"Look - why are you being so supportive of him?" I asked, confused, "I'm _sure_ he was the one from that night. If he's a suspect in our parents' death, wouldn't you want him caught? Even if you _know_ his secret identity, and you know him as a friend, or whatever, you can't believe everything he's telling you! People can lie to you so easily, Barry!"

Barry froze, and sighed.

"It's a bit more complicated than that, Artemis," he said in a low voice. Was that guilt I heard?

"I didn't mean to be so condescending, but I know for a fact that there were speedsters in the room when my mother died," I explained solemnly, showing Barry the screen, "One red - just like our Flash friend here - and one yellow. And I consider them _both_ to be suspects."

"I've never seen or heard of the yellow speedster, though," Barry confessed.

"You - you didn't see him the night your mother died?"

"No. I only saw lightning, and then I was outside, 20 blocks away from my home," he said solemnly.

"I was able to make out what happened," I attested, "And I too found myself outside, on my front lawn, but I managed to run back upstairs. I saw the yellow speedster clearly."

Barry pulled out a sketch pad from his breifcase.

"Could you describe what you remember?" He asked. I nodded my head and defined what I remembered of the speedster as Barry penciled in my description. He had to have been at least 6 feet tall, and his suit phased from yellow to pure black, and the insignia on his chest was a reversed version of the Flash's, and how the speedster's eyes were bloodred, and glowed menacingly.

I watched Barry draw, guiding him through the specific details, and he held up the finished sketch. It's black and white, but frighteningly accurate.

"That's him," I answered nervously. The picture is so precise, capturing the ghostliness of the yellow phantom, that it provoked the memory of him shooting the large knife into my mother, and I tried not to shiver. Barry registered my fear, and put the picture away.

"I'll have copies made of that, then, and I'll send them up to the Captain, to keep an eye out for him. But STAR Labs, myself, and the Flash have _never_ seen him before."

"Alright," I answered, forcing myself to regain composure. It was just a picture. It wasn't real... The yellow demon had not been seen in the city, and he _wasn't_ here.

"Do you mind if I share our work tonight with Joe?" Barry asked gently.

"Go for it," I answered, "I don't see what we have to hide."

"We finally have a suspect. Even if we haven't seen this metahuman yet, we still know to look for him. We'll know what he means if we see him."

"And the Flash. He's a suspect too. Don't trust him. He's lying when he says he 'just got his speed' or whatever. I know he was the same monster from that night."

Barry grimaced, and turned so he was facing me. He put a hand on my shoulder and leaned in.

"We're - I don't know about that. But he's not a monster, and I trust him. And I think you should too. He means well."

"Barry, how the hell are you so certain about that?" I asked nervously, "He could have helped kill our mothers!"

"Artemis," Barry persisted, "He didn't. He's not that kind of person. Trust me."

The solemness in his expression is undeniable and strong. Barry has complete faith in this Flash guy, and nothing I could say could waver that, even though I have evidence the Flash was there.

How _well_ do you have to know someone before you can assume you fully know them, like Barry claimed to know the Flash?

"I think we've made good progress today," Barry announced, turning away from me to gather our notes and whatnot, "You've seen the yellow speedster, and now we just need to find him. Though we have no idea where he could be, or if he's still alive."

"He's alive. Trust me."

"How do you know that? Have you seen him since?"

"No," I denied, "But I just have this sick feeling in my gut."

"Fear?" Barry asked.

"Absolute horror," I responded with a small smile.

Barry gave me an assuring smile and hung his briefcase from his shoulder. He brought his hand up to my chin, and tilted it up.

"You're safe. You're more than safe. You have nothing to be afraid of," he promised, giving me a small but certain smile.

"Nothing, other than three metahumans on the loose, and several others still in hiding, one of which has probably killed our parents," I allowed, brushing his hand away. Barry's smile grew, and he caught my fingers, pulling me away from the counter and leading me towards the door.

"Come on," he said.

"What - are we going somewhere now?"

"Yeah, I figured we could go get something to eat. I'm starving," he said.

"That actually sounds like a great idea. I'm fresh out of food," I admitted, "Where are we going?"

"Just a small place down in the Englewood district," Barry said, still smiling.

"Englewood? But that's so far away," I stated. Englewood was the northeast corner of Central City, and was a long drive away.

"How will we get there?" I questioned, knowing Barry didn't own a car.

Barry's smile melted at my question.

"Umm, I'll remedy that momentarily. Stay here?" He asked.

"Sure. I'll get dressed," I stated, looking down at my flannel shirt and old jeans, which contrasted his impeccably neat outfit.

Barry smiled, and left my apartment. Where he could be going - I had no idea. I took my chance to dash into my room, and changed into something far more appropriate for dinner than jeans and flannel - a knee length plain pink dress. I hurriedly rubbed some makeup on my arms to cover up the scars. It wasn't as effective at hiding the scars as the stuff Barry used, but at least I wouldn't be giving anyone a heart attack if they saw me. I heard the front door open, and quickly ran a comb through my hair and tied it back, before slipping my feet into flats and leaving.

"Where'd you go?" I asked, "You were gone for only a minute."

"Just went to go grab some keys," Barry allowed, smiling as he held up a familiar set of car keys.

"Barry?" I asked, confusion washing through me.

"Mmm?"

"These are Cisco's."

"Uhh - yeah, they are," he admitted, "You caught me."

"Barry?" I asked, this time with more worry in my voice.

"Yes?"

"Cisco lives a fifteen-minute walk away. How'd you get back here so fast?"

Barry didn't have anything to say to defend himself. I cocked an eyebrow up and smiled at him.

"Something you'd like to tell me?" I inquired, referring to my confrontation with him a few days ago, in which I accused him of being the Flash.

"I didn't actually go to Cisco's," Barry confessed with a sorry smile, "He had an extra set of car keys that I borrowed once but forgot to give back, and I happened to find them in this coat, so I thought I'd... just come back."

"That's oddly convenient," I retorted, staring at him. He smiled and shrugged adorably.

I smiled and shook my head in disbelief at him, and stuffed my wallet, phone and keys in a purse before roping an arm through his - to his surprise - and leaving.

"So... this dinner... it doesn't count as a date, does it?" I asked Barry, as we walked through the apartment complex to where Cisco kept his car parked.

"Nope. If it were a date, we'd have to admit to being a couple," Barry agreed, though he smiled wily at me.

"And we're definitely _not_ a couple," I stated, as we sat down in the car.

"Absolutely not."

"We hate each other."

"Okay - we don't _hate_ each other, but -" Barry regarded, starting the engine and backing out of the parking lot as he drove out into the city.

"But we don't necessarily like each other, either."

"Precisely. We're just friends."

"Yes. Friends," I continued, "Incredibly smart -"

"Incredibly attractive-"

"Incredibly single friends," I finished. Barry thought I was attractive?

"With no feelings for each other whatsoever."

"Going out for dinner together."

"It doesn't get any more platonic than this," Barry teased. I laughed, although deep down, I knew Barry wasn't the one who was joking here. I was the one who was slowly falling for him.

Oh, _get it together_ , Artemis. You can't like _him_ of all people!

"Yup," I said with a nervous laugh.

Barry quickly shot me a nervous glance before turning away. Did he think I was weird for making a big deal about us not being a couple?

Okay - anyone in their right minds probably would. Did he sense that there was something more to my teasing?

I silently exhaled. Let's not make things more uncomfortable here.

"So how's Iris doing?" I asked, before understanding what I had actually asked and cringing hard enough to make my stomach ache.

The first thing out of my mouth after awkward silence, and it's _that_?!

 _Let's not make things more uncomfortable - by bringing up the girl he_ **actually** _likes - Van Kleiss, you're a genius! A total motherfrigging genius!_

To my surprise, Barry actually chuckled.

"She's hard at work writing this new article. You really did inspire her that other day, you know," he complimented.

"I don't even remember what I said, actually," I admitted.

"Yeah, well, don't be surprised when she gets it published."

"What's she writing about?" I asked, genuinely interested in the fact that Iris was finding success.

"She kind of swore she'd kill me if I told you..."

Oh? What could it be, that she didn't want me to know about, even though the entire city would know soon enough?

"Well, whatever gets her onto the paper, right?" I consented.

Barry smiled and rolled the car into a parking lot. I looked outside and saw what must have been one of the most elegant restaurants I had ever seen. Well-dressed people were leaving their cars and walking in. I felt grateful to have made the split-second decision to change out of my jeans into a dress.

"I thought you said we were going to a _small_ place down in Englewood."

"Yeah, well, I've been lying to you," he said with a guilty smile, "I haven't been to this place in months, and I thought it would be nice if I brought you here too, since you're new to the city."

"You're very smooth, Allen."

Barry chuckled and offered me his arm. I took it, and we walked into the posh entrance, where we waited in line to be seated.

"This is some place," I commented, taking a look around the restaurant. Barry nodded and smiled. Men in suits and women in elegant dresses were seated throughout the elegant building. We were probably the most under-dressed ones here. Waiters and waitresses carrying trays of expensive-looking food tended to their guests, and a band was playing soft music in the back.

We finally made it to the front of the line.

"Table for two?" A waiter asked in a British accent at the podium.

"Yeah, but I've made a reservation under the name 'Allen'," Barry responded.

A _reservation?_ As in, this was planned? Barry Allen, what...exactly... are you doing?

The waiter flipped through the guestbook and smiled at us.

"Absolutely. Right this way, sir," and we followed him through the bustling restaurant to a peaceful outdoor seating arrangement, where only a few other couples were seated, and a large balcony gave the perfect nighttime view of the urban city we had left.

The waiter led us to a small table by the balcony and handed us our menus before leaving, and we sat across from each other.

"So... tell me about this _reservation_ ," I finally said, arching an eyebrow up at him.

Barry smiled matter-of-factly.

""You can't just walk into a place like this," Barry explained, as if it was obvious, "The waiting time here's more than an hour."

"Yeah, I can see why," I answered, watching as a few couples began dancing to the music in an open area not far from the tables, "But that's not what I asked."

Barry's smile turned guilty.

"Yeah, well, I felt bad. You treated us really nicely the other day, and you're always doing things for us without being asked. I figured I'd return the favor."

"Oh?" I asked, "What exactly have I done that warrants a dinner alone with you at a place like this?"

If Barry said he wanted us to be friends, then he definitely countered his words by bringing me _here_.

"Don't be so naive," Barry scolded with a smile. He began counting on his fingers, "One, you got caught up in that attack with Andrew Thompson on, what, your second day here?"

"You know - I never found out how you found out about that," I interrupted, not knowing what to make of what Barry just said.

It's true - Barry wasn't there that day - when the Flash came in and rescued the entire street from Smoke Ghost. Only the police, myself, the Flash, and Thompson himself. Cisco and Caitlin knew, but that was because I had blatantly disobeyed them. Eddie and Joe knew too, but that was because I had made a huge show about shaming the police for wanting to hurt Thompson.

"My stepdad's a cop, Artemis," Barry alluded with a playful light in his eyes, "Figure it out yourself."

I gauged his words, feeling foolish.

"Alright. You found out from your dad."

"And you gave everyone at STAR Labs the heart attack of the century. I don't think _anyone_ is going to forget about it for a while."

"Fine," I conceded, "I got caught up in a surprise metahuman attack. Now I'm here with you?"

"You didn't let me finish," Barry said, as he continued validating himself, "Two, you actually came _back_ to Central City. We were all worried that you'd be too scared to return after going through something like that, but you surprisingly did, which is actually a big deal."

I chuckled.

"Yeah, you have no idea how badly I wanted to ditch this job and stay at home, where things made sense. I've seen three metahumans so far - I even built tech to take another one down - and I _still_ can't believe I live here, where things like this happen. It's like I'm in a Space Destroyers movie."

Barry smiled at my words as he continued counting.

"Three, you kicked us out when we tried to help you move in."

"That's only because you guys finished _all_ of the bulky work in, like, milliseconds," I exaggerated, "I still haven't figured out how you did that. What - did the _Flash_ decide to stop by and help, or something? Because what you and Cisco did was pretty much impossible."

Barry grinned and raised an eyebrow at me, daring me to make the conclusion.

"It _was_ the Flash, wasn't it?" I asked, realizing how much my joke had made sense, "Oh, god. You invited the _Flash_ over and had _him_ do all that work."

Barry stayed silent, but continued smiling. My jaw dropped.

"The _Flash_ has been to my home? Without me knowing?"

Barry scratched the back of his head and shrugged.

"Anyway, I was saying..." he intoned. I signalled for him to continue, "The _exact_ same day, you allowed us to take you to the dive bar and let Cisco and Caitlin 'formally initiate' you at STAR Labs through group karaoke, and also had the heart to carry drunk Caitlin home, which is also something that can't be easily forgotten, seeing how you _barely_ knew Caitlin, Cisco _or_ myself, at the time."

"You forgot the part where Cisco tried to get us to hold hands," I reminded, and we both broke into smiles over the memory.

"You started work at STAR Labs almost immediately - didn't you come in the very next day?"

"I did, actually."

"And Dr. Wells was pretty grateful that you did. You built one of _the_ coolest weapons I have ever seen, then _also_ came over to my place to help Iris with her little blog, and saved me from an embarrassing episode of third-wheeling by watching football with me."

"Go Patriots," I mentioned unenthusiastically. Barry beamed.

"Not to mention the fact that - from what I heard - you ran to STAR Labs on _foot_ to arrive at the emergency in the middle of the night, and instead of punching Dr. Wells in the face for screwing with you, you had the decency to go back home and respect their privacy."

I leaned back and folded my arms, and sighed with a smile.

"And _then_ got tangled in another metahuman attack the next day, saved a small child, distracted said metahuman from the hoards of innocent people waiting on standby, rescued Iris from danger, and stopped the creepy metahuman from almost killing the Flash. Oh, and then I lost my job for a week."

Barry smiled and gently tapped my hand.

"See? You of all people deserve a break!" He jested, "Oh, and we almost forgot the fact that we forced you to come watch Space Destroyers with us."

"And humiliated myself in front of Eddie Thawne? Yeah, not gonna forget _that_ any time soon."

"Was it really that bad?" Barry asked in confusion.

"You think I like being made fun of like that?" I asked with a small scoff, "All that incessant teasing to get me to date someone who has feelings for someone who _isn't_ me?"

"What, are you, like, _jealous_?" Barry intoned in a small voice, a tiny smile playing on his lips.

"Jealous of Iris for having stolen _your_ affections?" I retorted, "Not a chance. We're just friends, and I'm okay with that -"

"As you've been dutifully reminding me," Barry teased, "You know - you _are_ a bit too defensive of that for comfort."

I rolled my eyes at him, and finally acknowledged the menu in front of me, picking it up and opening it.

"Just look at it from my point of view for a second. I have a friend, who likes another one of my friends, who is dating _another_ friend - and the other two friends are trying to get me to _date_ the first friend, who does _not_ like me in that way," I stated, not looking at him, as I continued,

"And it wouldn't be so bad if you knew said friend didn't like the other friend, because then it might actually make sense for you two to be together, but you just know it's a lost cause because, a, he's heads over heels for that other friend, and, b, he's known that other friend far longer than he's known you, and, c, you might as well stop, because it's never going to happen. Capiesche?"

Barry took my words in, and nodded.

"But then again, who said we have to be conventional about it?" He offered.

I smiled at his proposal, but the smile soon melted.

"Then I wouldn't be able to shake off the feeling that I was only picked because I was your second choice," I stated quietly, as I watched the light in Barry's smile dim.

"But hey - friends can still have fun, right?" I offered hopefully, not wanting to ruin the moment.

"Yeah, so long as Cisco and Eddie don't find out," Barry replied, breaking into a smile again.

"Oh man," I responded nervously, "We'd be screwed. There's _no_ way we could get out of that."

Barry smiled more brightly and laughed, and the waiter from earlier reappeared.

"Are you ready to have your orders taken?" He asked politely, holding out a notepad and pen.

"Oh, yes," Barry responded. He proceeded to surprise me with a lengthy list of soups, pastas, salads, and a fancy type of steak, one that he probably had memorized seeing how easily he ordered, before addressing me.

"What about you, Artemis?"

I was a bit surprised - all that food, just for himself? i thought he had been ordering for the both of us, though I was surprised he'd ordered for me without even asking what I had wanted.

Barry was really going to eat all of that?

I quickly peered down at the menu and ordered the first thing I saw.

"Oh, yeah, I'll take the, uhh, the spinach pesto gnocchi. That's it," I said with a smile. Barry gave me a confused look. What, was I _also_ supposed to order enough to feed a small village?

"And for drinks?" the waiter asked, "Will you be having our featured wine, tonight?"

Barry looked to me for my opinion.

"Oh, no thanks. I won't be having any wine. Barry, you?"

"No, I won't be drinking either," he conceded, "I'll take cider."

"I'll have what he's having," I repeated after him. The waiter smiled and thanked us, before leaving.

"You know, I brought you here so you would _eat_ ," Barry held.

" _You know_ ," I mimicked, " _I_ for one  can't actually eat enough to feed an entire family in one sitting," I replied with a small smile. Barry smiled and shrugged.

"Guess I'm just a bit hungry today," he allowed. I accepted his answer, before something strange occurred to me.

Barry's diet...

He _always_ seemed to eat more than usual, despite his size and physical build.

The first time I had seen him eat was when he took me to Jitters. Cisco had jokingly reminded Barry he had already had breakfast, to which Barry told him that eating a little more never hurt him.

The second time was at the dive bar. Barry had practically _inhaled_ all those excess plates of nachos that Cisco had drunkenly ordered. Cisco had ordered six or seven plates, and we both had only eaten one each, leaving the rest for Barry.

Then - at Joe's place, when he couldn't stop eating mac n' cheese, and he had eaten at least three or four bowls of it right in front of me?

And the other day, when he came over with Joe, Iris and Eddie - he had eaten en entire batch of cookies, and I had to have made _at least_ three dozen, while Eddie, Iris and Joe only had a few a piece.

And yesterday, at my house - the huge casserole I had made, the pasta he had made, the dessert I had bought - Barry _couldn't_ seem to get enough of it.

"Wow, you always seem to eat a lot," I brought up, after collecting my thoughts.

At the rate he ate, he should have been extremely unhealthy, should have been well out of shape. But I had seen him at the gym. He was more fit than both Cisco and I were, and Cisco was _also_ a complete pig when it came to food as well.

"Yeah, I ... just have really good metabolism," Barry consented, shrugging with an easy smile.

"What, are you taking some magic pill or something?"

Barry gave me a disbelieving smile and shook his head no.

"You're something else altogether, aren't you?" I teased. Barry was about to respond, when the waiter from earlier returned with a waitress, both holding up large circular trays that carried the plates of food.

"That was... quick," I noted, as the two began to name the foods before us and place them down.

"That's mine..." Barry told them kindly, and they placed the specified dishes closer to his end of the table, "That's also mine... That's mine as well... um, that one too... And the gnocchi's hers."

The waitress nodded and placed the last dish in front of me - a plate of rolled up pasta balls covered in a nice smelling green sauce, and I thanked them. They poured two glasses of sparkling cider, and asked us if we needed anything else, to which we kindly declined, and left.

I turned to Barry, and the four heaping plates of food in front of him, and gave him a questioning look.

"Are you _actually_ going to be able to eat... all... of that?" I expressed with shock.

"Just watch me, Van Kleiss," he answered coolly, taking a spoonful of his pasta, "You're more than welcome to help yourself to a few bites."

I gave him a suspicious smile, swiped a bite of his salad for teasing's sake, before facing my own meal. We continued to with to talk as we ate, and by the time I'm done with half of my food, Barry has already finished his soup and his pasta, and is onto his steak.

This isn't possible - I've been watching him the entire time - but all I've seen is bite followed by bite, a few words spoken in between, followed by more bites, while I've been eating slowly, like a sloth.

No, I'm eating at the right pace.

Barry Allen here is the weird one.

Barry acknowledged the glass of cider beside his plate and took a drink, and I too picked mine up, having forgotten to drink during my meal. The cider tastes sharp and fizzy, and is too bittersweet for my taste, and I scowl as I set the glass back down.

"Wow, not even cider, huh?" Barry remarked.

"No," I answered solemnly, taking another bite of food.

"And you're completely against alcohol too," Barry noted, "You didn't drink at the bar, either."

"Yeah, well, what can I say? I've caused enough trouble in my life," I joked, "I don't really want my parents shivering in their graves knowing I'm getting wasted too."

Barry smiled.

"It's not like you drink, either," I observed, "What's your reasoning?"

"I... just hate the taste, I guess," he allowed, "And I _like_ having my inhibitions in check, so yeah."

I gave a light chuckle.

"Yeah, I can't really imagine you drunk, come to think of it."

And I really couldn't. Barry was the most composed, polite and poised person I had ever meant. I couldn't imagine him _ever_ being anything less than in control of his actions.

"Good," Barry answered, cracking a crooked grin, "You probably don't want to."

"I'm guessing someone had quite an interesting time, back in college?" I teased, absent-mindedly stringing my mother's necklace along my neck.

Barry's eyes flittered as caught my movement, before he laughed nervously.

"You could say that, yeah."

"You know, speaking of alcohol, Dr. Wells offered me a glass of wine today. I turned him down."

"What?" Barry asked in mild astonishment.

"Yeah. I went to his place to apologize for my 'reckless' behavior, and he accepted. He wants me back at the Lab, tomorrow."

"Artemis, that's awesome!" Barry exclaimed with a smile, "What did you say to him?"

"I asked him if I could conduct some private research while he, Caitlin and Cisco did God knows what with the Flash," I answered, rolling my eyes when I said _the Flash_ , "And he said yes, as long as I leave when asked."

"Alright, not bad," he conceded, "Do you know what kind of research you'll be doing?"

"Well, not quite," I answered vaguely, "But I'm hoping it'll help me find an answer to both the 'stopping the metahumans' question, as well as what happened to our mothers."

Barry set his fork down and reached his hand over to take my own.

"You... are unbelievably amazing in more ways than we could ever sit down and count over dinner."

I smiled in spite of myself, and tried not to blush, as an elated feeling flew through me. That was _quite_ the compliment...

"Are you done eating?" Barry asked.

"Uhh... yeah, I am, actually," I answered, acknowledging the finished plate in front of me, and the completely clean ones in front of Barry.

"Good. Come on," he said, getting up, still holding my hand, forcing me to rise as well.

"What? Where are we going?" I asked.

"To dance, of course," he said, smiling.

"I'm sorry - did you say _dance?_!" I asked quietly, trying to hide my shock. And disgust. Singing karaoke was one thing. But dancing was another. I _despised_ dancing.

"Yeah," Barry answered, gesturing towards the open area near where the musicians were playing and other couples were doing some kind of waltz.

"I mean, we don't have to if you don't want to. I just thought it would be fun."

"Yeah, sure," I conceded, willing for myself not to turn red from embarrassment. Barry had been kind enough to bring me here - I didn't want him to feel bad by turning him down.

Besides, I didn't know anyone here, other than him. Nobody I knew would know about this. Nobody would remember this, nobody else would see. Calm down. Nothing will go wrong. Don't make a fool of yourself.

Barry led me over to where the other couples were, and turned and placed a hand at my waist so he was facing me, surprising me. I tried to copy the movements of the other couples - one hand in the air with their partner's, the other at his shoulder. I awkwardly did so, and Barry smiled and moved. I tried to move in coordination with him as well, except I wasn't exactly as well coordinated as he was, and I stepped forward rather than to the side - right onto his shoe.

"Oh, shoot! Sorry, sorry!" I said, with a wince, my face turning hot from chagrin.

"It's okay," Barry replied with a small laugh.

I forced myself to ease, and I tried to follow along with his movements - mine being a lot more awkward and choppy, his being smooth, quick and graceful, causing me to look rather clumsy and inelegant.

For a man who couldn't run two feet, he was a pretty good dancer.

"Artemis?" Barry finally asked, after a few minutes of hellish awkwardness.

"Yes?" I replied nervously, forcing myself to look up at him.

"You're... kind of squeezing the life out of my shoulder. And my hand."

"Ohh my god," I stuttered, pulling my clenched hands off of him, and awkwardly waving them around over his hand and shoulder, unsure of what to do with them, before forcing them to replace themselves - this time with strained gentleness.

"Are you alright?" Barry mused, as he continued dancing easily.

"Umm, yeah," I lied with a gulp, "I'm ... perfectly, um, fine."

"Oh. Okay," Barry answered, before breaking into a smirk, "Because you've... been looking rather fearful the entire time."

"Oh, _Barry_ ," I mused, smirking back him and refusing to accept my vulnerability, " _Anyone_ would be afraid of having to dance with you."

"Do you not like dancing?" He asked.

"I _loathe_ it," I responded honestly.

"Why? You're not _that_ bad at it," he allowed.

I shot an eyebrow up at him quizzically.

"You're just as horrible a liar as _I_ am a dancer."

Barry smiled.

"No, I'm a better liar than you think," he responded with an ambiguous smile, "And, by association, that means you can inherently dance better than this."

"I'll embarrass us both beyond belief, Allen."

"Then we'll be even," he responded coolly.

"Even?" I inquired, taken aback.

"Yes. Then we'll both be embarrassed," He explained in a joking tone, "Because I just took a pretty girl to this awesome, lavish restaurant and scored a romantic dinner with her, only to be pushed back into the friendzone. And now _you_ get to embarrass yourself by dancing in public. Now, just try to follow along, okay? You'll feel more comfortable once you _forget_ how uncomfortable it is."

He was kidding - about the friendzone part.

He knew he liked Iris, I knew he liked Iris. He just said that because it was a running joke between us.

Barry Allen was a running joke, I thought with a silent laugh.

"Fine," I said, accepting his challenge, "You can't run, I can't dance. You've got me. I can still dance better than you can run, though," I retorted.

"In your _dreams_ , Artemis," Barry crooned, giving me a small knowing smile.

In a few moments, I finally found the rhythm of his movements - seeing it as more of a problem or a mathematical sequence than a dance routine, because my brain was just wired to figure things like that better.

"See, now you're getting it," Barry complimented, as he started going a little faster, keeping up with the soft musical number in the background. I pushed away any nervousness and instead focused on the pattern, not wanting to give Barry the satisfaction of making a fool of myself.

Who the hell did Barry think he was? Walking into my life like this, easily winning me over so quickly, forcing me suppress any feelings I might have had for him, all while playing it so cool himself? Spending all this time with me, joking around with me, taking me to the movies, out to dinner, and now dancing?

"Cisco, Iris and Eddie _better_ not find out about this," I commented, before smiling.

"Agreed," Barry said with a light chuckle.

The tone of the music got higher and faster, signifying that the song was about to end, and Barry moved accordingly, and my fears returned, as I found it more difficult to move in rhythm with him.

I tried to keep up, but he pulled me to the right instead of to his left, which I had thought he would be doing, and I yelped as I stumbled in surprise.

Lucky for us, Barry somehow found quick reflexes, and I found myself leaning backwards in a dip, with him over me and his arms behind my back and under my shoulders, one of my hands clutching his arm, and the other at his back.

"Smile," he quickly whispered, and I obeyed as a flash of light went off somewhere to our right.

I realized what happened, and stood up, any fun that I had washed away from embarrassment that I had slipped and Barry had caught me.

"Did someone take a picture of us?" I asked nervously, as the song ended and people clapped for the band.

"Umm, I'm not sure," Barry replied, "I just saw someone with a camera pointed at us, so..."

"Barry, that means someone took our picture," I answered in annoyance.

Barry turned guilty and shrugged, and I scorned at the fact that someone had caught my slip. I soon became distracted by the sight of a familiar waiter walking towards our table, where we had left our things, with a small black book in hand.

"Well, I had fun. Gotta go," I joked to Barry quickly, before running towards the waiter, leaving him behind.

"Wait, Artemis!" Barry called out behind me with a laugh, realizing what I was about to do. I beat him to it though, and by the time he arrived, I had already signed the receipt and handed the waiter my credit card.

"What?!" Barry protested, once he understood what I had done,"Why on earth would you do that? I brought you here!"

I smiled coyly back at him and put an arm around his lower back.

"Guess I get the final laugh tonight, eh, Bear?"

"Not funny, Artemis," he replied. The waiter returned with my card, and we walked back inside to leave.

"Why? Who said we had to be _conventional_ about it?" I mocked. He rolled his eyes and handed me the car keys as we reached the parking lot.

"You're going to need to drop me off first in order to get home," he said, "Cisco will want his car back."

"I thought Cisco knew we took it?" I asked, walking past Barry to get to the driver's seat while he took shotgun.

"Ummm... This would be one of the instances where I tell you I'm better at lying than you are."

"If Cisco finds out where we were, I'll make sure you're toast," I scoffed, not anticipating the teasing this could bring me.

"He'll find out anyway. Guy's the best hacker in the city," Barry answered, as I started the car, "We'll just tell him it was dinner. Nice and simple. And platonic."

" _Completely_ platonic," I repeated sarcastically, remembering how Barry teased me about this dinner being romantic. Barry guided me through the lavish Englewood district and gave me directions on how to get back to his place, and we soon made our way back.

"Oh, god," he muttered, glancing at his watch, "It's almost 11 o clock."

"You're well into your 20's," I noted, parking his car in the driveway, "Please tell me you don't have a curfew."

"I don't," Barry said, picking up his briefcase from the floor and opening the door, "But that just means we spent about 5 hours together. And Iris will be _sure_ to remind me of that."

"How dreadful," I joked, getting out of the car, "You managed to live through 5 hours with me. You poor thing."

"You're getting out of the car?" Barry asked, watching me close the door.

"Well, yeah," I answered, "You always walk me to my door. Thought I'd do the same. It's just courtesy."

Barry studied me for a second.

"Alright," he consented, and I walked alongside him around the garage and to his door. He pulled his keys out of his pocket and stuck them in the knob, before sighing and facing me, leaning against the door.

"Tonight actually was a lot of fun," he declared, smiling at me in the moonlight. I smiled back.

"Even though I totally _destroyed_ the dance floor?" I asked in a mocking tone. Barry chuckled.

"You're hilarious. See you tomorrow? At STAR Labs?" He asked, holding up his fist for our customary goodbye fistbumps.

"Sure thing," I said, hitting my fist to his. Barry turned and put his hand to the door, before dropping it and facing me.

"Actually, no. Come here," he said, and I whelped in spite of my astonishment as Barry pulled me by the arm into a surprise hug.

* * *

 **[Barry's POV]**

I smiled down at Artemis, and pulled one hand away to tilt her chin up, before she could protest. Surprisingly, she didn't, and she looked back up at me with her dark eyes shining behind her glasses.

 _What was I doing?_ I suddenly realized.

I certainly couldn't kiss her, even though I kind of wanted to, and if I would never admit it out loud.

I cleared my throat and leaned in, just slightly.

"Well," I started, brushing a strand of hair away from her perfect face, "Thank you. For tonight."

She murmured a laugh, and freed her hands from between our bodies to place them over my shoulders.

"No problem, Barry."

I smiled and continued to hold her like that, and her cheeks flushed pink, as I slowly leaned in towards her. I quickly wrapped my arms around her waist and hoisted her up a few inches so our faces could be level, and I could feel adrenaline suddenly course through me, the blood pounding through my heart faster than it usually did. Her breathing turned a bit unsteady as she watched me, stroked my cheek with her thumb.

I felt a little numb from the unsteady shock of energy, from my impulsive decision to pick her up, from how close her face was to mine. Oh, Barry, I thought wistfully, as I continued to wordlessly stare at her. Please don't do something stupid... God knows what she'd think of you if you flipped out in a moment like this...

Our faces were inches away from each other's, and I suddenly noticed specks of gold in her brown eyes, and a tiny scar faintly cutting through her left eyebrow.

For a fleeting moment, I wondered how she got it. In fact, I wanted to know everything about the young woman in my arms, who managed to both undermine me and everything I did, as well as give me a new motivation in my life, an extra kick in my step, capturing my attention whenever she was in the room.

More so, I wanted for her to let me hold her in my arms forever, for her to accept me entirely - both as Barry Allen, and the Flash.

Bringing a hand up to cup her face, I brought her forward. She touched her forehead to mine, and pulled her arms off of my shoulders to gently take my face in her small, nimble hands. I tilted my face upwards towards hers, and her soft lips met mine, gently brushing over them, before she made a sound between a shriek and a yelp and jolted her head and torso back away from me, her face flaring bright red, as the porch became flooded with light.

The door beside us flew open, and I turned and saw Joe, who soon widened his eyes and turned guilty as he saw us.

"Oh my god - umm, sorry guys!" He exclaimed shamefully, unsure of what to do, "I just saw that other car in my driveway and heard voices outside and thought we were going to get robbed, or something - I didn't mean to, umm, interrupt... whatever this was."

Artemis and I faced each other with blushing faces. With embarrassment, I realized I was still holding her and I immediately dropped her. We pulled our arms away from each other, even pushing each other away.

"No problem, Joe-" she admitted.

"We weren't doing anything!" I announced with a nervous laugh.

"Yeah, we were just, umm-" Artemis began.

"Saying goodbye!" I asserted, finishing her sentence for her. We turned to each other and nodded nervously - cringing - both knowing we looked like fools.

Joe shot us a skeptical, almost worried, look.

"Um. Okay, then. I'll, uhh, leave you both," he said, turning back inside, "To...finish... saying goodbye."

Artemis turned to me and waved a hand.

"Bye, Barry," she chirped monotonously, still edgy from Joe's little surprise.

"Yeah. Bye, Artemis," I returned awkwardly. She nodded at me, and turned to walk back down to the driveway, and I took that as my cue to go inside the house, before a small hand grabbed my upper arm and pulled me so I turned back around. I faced Artemis, who had returned with a confused look on her face.

"Did you just..." she attempted, shaking her head in disbelief as she made sense of what had happened, "Did you just try to _kiss_ me?"

Guilt and discomfort settled through me as I tried to find an answer.

"I, umm, yeah, maybe," I finally managed, "I just... thought the moment was right."

A small smile appeared on her bow-shaped lips.

"Yeah, well, you thought wrong," she stated casually, "And - hey, I thought we said we were just friends?"

"Oh, yeah..." I murmured, "Friends."

To my surprise, she smiled, and shyly tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She quickly stepped forward and stood on her tiptoes, planting a soft peck on my cheekbone before stepping back.

"We should probably discuss the boundaries of our friendship, then," she said with a small smile, finally letting go of my arm. I nodded at her, and smiled with a protest as she ruffled a hand through my hair, before turning and actually walking away this time. I watched her get into Cisco's car, backing it out of our driveway, and giving me a quick wave before driving off.

A minute or so passed before I realized I was still standing on the porch, smiling like a fool. I turned and entered the house, closing the door behind me as I entered my dark living room, when a lamp turned on, catching my attention.

Iris was perched on the couch beside the lamp with her legs tucked underneath her, and she smiled slyly as she crossed her arms.

I knew that look all too well, and took a deep breath.

"Hi, Barry," She said, with a smooth roll of her voice, with an eyebrow raised.

"Hey, Iris," I greeted with a grimace, not wanting this confrontation. I turned and headed towards the staircase.

"So, how was your date with Artemis?" She asked, getting off of the sofa to walk up towards me.

"It was...alright," I admitted, stopping in my tracks to smile at her, at how tonight had played out.

"So you admit it, then."

"Admit what?" I asked dumbly.

"That it _was_ a date," she said, walking past me to the next level of stairs, smiling playfully at me.

"What?! What - no!" I maintained, "She - she doesn't like me!"

"Oh yeah?" Iris challenged, leaning her head down in her folded arms, as she leaned on the railing, still looking down on me, "She seemed to like you _just fine_ when you tried to kiss her."

I blushed and turned away, remembering how perfect the moment had been until Joe showed up, unintentionally ruining it.

"Dad's always been a cockblock. You should've just kissed her while dancing at the restaurant," Iris stated. Kissed her while dancing at the restaurant?

"What?" I stuttered in astonishment, "How - how did you know we were dancing? At the restaurant? How did you find out any of this?"

Iris smiled as she took her phone out of the pocket.

"Barry, you know Chanel, right? My friend from the Picture News?" Iris inquired, as she scrolled through the screen, standing beside me.

"No?"

"You met her when I was with Linda, remember? She had short blonde hair?"

I vaguely recalled Iris introducing me to some of her friends from the CCPN a while back, one of them being a hipster blonde woman with red glasses.

"What about her?" I questioned, unsure of where Iris was going with this.

"You probably don't remember, but she writes for the Food and Drink section. And I had told her about my own article. And tonight, she _happened_ to be at the very same restaurant as you two, reviewing some of the new featured wine, when she just so _happened_ to catch an object of my interest," Iris quipped, and she held her phone out to me, revealing a picture I _knew_ Artemis would _not_ be happy with.

"Iris, she'll murder us _both_ if you publish this," I whispered in fear, walking up to her.

"Barry, I need to do this, though," she pleaded, "Stupid Bridges _actually_ really liked the idea. This could be my big break."

"She could sue you for legal liabilities. You're doing this without her permission," I reminded, "And I'm letting you know right now - you do _not_ want to be at the other end of her temper."

"Nonsense," Iris asserted with a smile, "Artemis adores me. She won't mind. This _is_ going to be my big break, and I'm so excited! Did you want to read the article before it officially makes its way into the paper?"

"No. I've had enough of Artemis for one night," I answered.

"Uh-huh," Iris murmured questioningly, "Seeing how Dad cut you both off, I highly doubt that."

Iris giggled at the surprise on my face for her words, and I shooed her away. She laughed as she went into her room.

Yes. I was going to be a dead man tomorrow, thanks to Iris's silly, albeit important, article.

I reluctantly pushed any thoughts of Artemis out of my head, and instead focused on the briefcase in my hand. I walked over to the room Joe was using as an office, and knocked, before entering anyway.

"Hey, Joe," I called, "What'chu up to?"

"Hi, Bear," Joe greeted, before sighing over the files before him, "Just reviewing the case of our favorite missing metahuman."

"Thompson?"

"Yeah, him," Joe responded, before smiling and indicating for me to take a seat, "How was your night?"

"It was nice," I allowed, involuntarily smiling.

"Yeah, sorry for busting in at the wrong time," Joe apologized sheepishly, "I genuinely didn't want to -"

"Joe, it's fine," I asserted, "She probably didn't want me kissing her, anyway."

As far as I could see, Artemis was all bark and no bite. We were both leading each other on, albeit unintentionally, but when it came to admitting our feelings, we both chickened. And she believed _me_ better than I believed her. Judging from our conversation tonight, Artemis was still under the impression that I liked Iris. Now, the kiss, or whatever it was, was something else entirely.

Even _I_ hoped I still liked Iris, because Iris made sense. Iris was sweet, Iris was kind, Iris was beautiful. The only problem I had with Iris was Eddie.

Artemis? Artemis also was sweet and kind, so long as you were on her good side - rest in peace, Cisco, Eddie and Dr. Wells, and now Iris - and she too was beautiful.

Not beautiful like Iris, not beautiful like the girls on TV and in the magazines, although there was a physical spark about her - in the way she always stood tall despite her petite frame, walked with her head held high, even after being humiliated at by Dr. Wells. I didn't find Artemis beautiful, despite the way her eyes sparkled behind her large glasses when she smiled, the way she engaged herself when listening to you speak, the small curve of her smile when you made her laugh.

Artemis _was_ beautiful - but not like the other girls. I couldn't find myself liking her for something as temporary as looks.

Artemis's _true_ beauty was in the way she thought, the way she was fearless. Artemis, I discovered, was beautiful for the way she cared for others, in the way she maintained herself, and was a bit too stubborn for her own taste, the way she unnerved you by getting under your skin without it being annoying.

There was a spontaneity and a unique gracefulness about Artemis - one that fascinated me, and one that I still hoped would keep me away from her, or God knows that I would crumble at her mercy.

Joe chuckled nervously.

"That's what you always say, before you date a girl, Bear," he conceded, "You're a man now - you should know how they work by now."

I sighed and smiled, before remembering why I came in in the first place.

"Oh - I actually got somewhere with Artemis tonight," I declared, opening up my briefcase to retrieve the files.

"Atta boy," Joe muttered with a smile.

"No, I meant with the cases," I said, trying not to blush, although I probably _should_ have at least told her how I felt instead of letting her believe I still thought of her as a friend.

 _Then I wouldn't be able to shake off the feeling that I was only picked because I was your second choice,_ she had said when I hinted at us being in a relationship. This... could be harder than I thought.

"What did you find?" Joe asked, looking up and putting his pen down.

I gave Joe the notes we had made together, and walked over to his side of the desk, opening up the link to the online archive she had shown me. I sped back over to where I had been before, and returned by Joe's side, handing him the picture of the yellow speedster I had drawn.

"That over there is everything she knows about that night," I said, pointing to the computer screen.

"And this," I continued, gesturing towards the drawing I had made, "Is the man Artemis remembers seeing. She said he was the one who killed her mother."

"What is he?" Joe asked, knitting his eyebrows together like he did when he was scared or worried.

"She said he was a speedster. Like me, but yellow and black," I recalled, "And - Joe, she said the Flash was there too. That _I_ was there, too."

"What?" Joe muttered, widening his eyes in shock, "Bear, that's not possible. You - you only became the Flash a few months ago, when you woke up. There's no way you could've been there that night."

"That's what I told her," I answered, " _I_ was back here at my own home, watching my own mother get killed."

"Bar, this isn't possible!" Joe mumbled, confused, "She _has_ to be wrong about this. Her memory must have been distorted over time, or - or she must've gotten scared seeing you here in the city."

"See, I'd agree with you, except -"

"Except what?"

I walked over to the computer and played the security camera footage. I paused the video at a point where the red speedster - who _did_ resemble me - was able to be clearly seen. On the other side of the room, a ghostly yellow demon was frozen in scream, young Artemis and her mother huddled together in fear on the bed.

"Except impossible is just another Tuesday for me," I said, watching Joe register the pictures.

"How do you know this isn't doctored footage?" Joe questioned, "This could be fake. Some conspiracy theorist could've made it to spike views."

"Artemis made this archive, and she told me that the footage is original, copied right from the security cameras in her mom's room. She said that the police back in Cambridge have the same evidence."

Joe stood up, disbelief painted across his face, and walked to his shelf, where he pulled out a thick red folder that I knew had clues from my mother's murder. He opened it, and looked through his findings.

"Bear, this is insane, you know that?" Joe asked grimly, "For there to have been _two_ murders that night, both the same way, and now both of the survivors are here? In Central City? Both involved with STAR Labs, and now - both involved with the Flash?"

"I know," I answered, "Artemis is actually afraid of the Flash. She thinks he - I - was involved in killing her mother."

"Well, she doesn't know the Flash," Joe answered, "All _she_ knows is that a speedster killed her mother. And now she's moved to a city where there _is_ a speedster, one who looks exactly like the one who was there when her mother died. I'd be afraid of you too, if that was me."

I crossed my arms and sighed.

"I normally would never say this, but you should tell her it's you. For the sake of the case," Joe affirmed. I took a deep breath and turned around, crossing my arms.

"Bear, why _haven't_ you told her yet?"

"Because..." I replied, before realizing I didn't have an answer.

"Because of Wells?" Joe scoffed, "Or because you've already lied to her and don't want to admit the truth?"

"Because I don't know what to do," I responded, "Nothing makes sense, and now -"

"And now you're catching feelings for her," Joe finished, catching me off guard.

"No," I lied uselessly, unsure of how to counter Joe.

"You know she can help you solve this murder," Joe reminded me solemnly, walking past me with the file in his hand, "And you know you'll need her on your side if you want to find this - this man in yellow. Most importantly, you _know_ you don't want her suspecting you, because we _both_ know you're not a murderer."

I nodded at Joe, and he wished me good night and left me alone in his office. I sighed and walked over to my room to get ready to go to bed.

Joe was right, even though I had _already_ known I needed to tell Artemis.

She trusted me and I was lying to her face. What's more - she believed that the Flash was secretly a murderer, and that he was lying to the people, that he couldn't be trusted.

Dr. Wells wanted us to keep the Flash from her to keep her safe. I didn't understand how that made any sense. She'd be much safer if she knew she could trust me.

I wondered how she was going to go about her little plan, to study the vankleissium and use it to stop metahumans. Did she want to stop the Flash as well?

What did she think of him - of me? Did she think he was a menace? Did she not know what to make of him altogether? Did she want to stop him?

Was Dr. Wells right when he said she would want to bring him - me - down?

What was she thinking of right now?

Was her head spinning with thoughts of me just as mine was with her? Was she too confused about what I thought about her? She hadn't pulled away when I tried to kiss her, and actually had kissed me on the cheek. Surely that meant something? That she did like me?

Well, I concluded - as I used my superspeed to quickly change out of my clothes into an old shirt and pajamas, brush my teeth in .8 seconds (a new record?), and climbed into bed - she has to like you at least a _little_ if she kissed you, stupid.

I remembered how uncomfortable she had felt when she had danced with me, despite the fact that I had held her slender body with ease. She wasn't that bad, to be honest - just a bit inexperienced. She'd be a lot better at it if she hadn't been so nervous. Maybe next time...

 _Would there even be a next time?_ I scoffed. After Iris published the photo that girl Chanel had snapped of us?

I touched my hand to the spot on my cheek where Artemis had kissed me - it was still tingling from the touch of her gentle, soft lips - and my mouth still felt ticklish from where her mouth had briefly brushed across mine.

One thing was certain - I was telling Artemis two lies, both of which she believed - one, that I was not the Flash, and two, that I did not like her. I wasn't sure which truth I was more scared to confess.

I turned to lie on my side and covered my eyes with my arm - promising that when I did decide to tell her, I would tell her both truths.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

I was barely able to sleep that night - for multiple reasons.

\- Barry Allen tried to _kiss_ me.

\- Barry Allen took me out to dinner.

\- Barry Allen had _really_ soft lips, as noted when he tried to _kiss_ me.

\- Barry Allen made me dance with him - and he was a pretty good dancer too, at that.

\- Barry Allen was significantly taller than me, as noted when he tried to kiss me.

\- Barry Allen was absolutely adorable when he was mad, when he saw that I paid for our dinner.

\- Barry Allen tried to kiss me.

\- Barry Allen told me he had fun with me tonight.

\- I had _told_ Barry Allen I wasn't interested in a relationship, and he tried to kiss me.

\- Barry Allen thought we could trust the Flash.

\- Did I mention Barry Allen tried to kiss me?

\- I did. In fact, I have. Several times now. My brain just keeps going back to that moment.

\- What was he _thinking_?

\- Had I really tried to kiss him back?

\- What was _I_ thinking?

\- Did I actually kiss him? On the cheek?

\- What on earth happened last night?

I got out of bed early, seeing how sleep was pointless, and ate a meager breakfast, and quickly got ready to go to the Lab. Even if nothing made sense with Barry yesterday, Dr. Wells had been crystal clear when he had told me I could come back to the Lab. It took all of my willpower not to skip with glee as I changed into a navy knee-length dress with a white floral print, tied my hair into its usual bun, and slipped my feet into the same old black flats. I left my apartment and waited over by Cisco's car.

"You here to steal my car again, you little thief?" he asked when he finally appeared five to ten minutes later, dressed in a gray comic t-shirt and jeans. I smiled at him. He frowned back.

"I needed my car last night, and my keys were gone," he said, still upset.

"Your keys were _gone_?" I asked, confused, "But Barry said he had taken your _spare_ keys..."

"Barry? What does _Barry_ have anything to do with this?" Cisco asked, perplexed, "And, no, _I_ had my spare keys. I keep them hidden. I never gave them to Barry - my regular keys as _well_ as my car were stolen last night."

"What?" I asked, "Then that means Barry's a total li-"

A liar. Barry admitted to me that he had been telling me several lies. I thought he said he had Cisco's permission?

Did he really say that? I couldn't remember.

"Since when was _Barry_ involved in this?" Cisco questioned.

Yay. Not even 8 a.m. and I'll be ridiculed for Artemarry.

"Barry said he needed a car last night, and took yours," I answered reluctantly.

"And you would know this how, exactly?" Cisco inquired, a small smile appearing on his lips.

I gave him a guilty shrug.

"Look, I just came here to ask if you could give me a ride to the Lab," I stated, "I'm not a huge fan of the fact that we're practically neighbors and you drive off to the Lab without me, while I get to walk or take the stupid bus. So can I come with you?"

"Sure thing," he affirmed with his usual adorable smile, and we both got into his car.

"So what did you need your car for last night?" I asked, wanting to apologize to him.

"Oh, nothing," he replied, backing the car out of Cloverleaf and into the city, "I just wanted to look something up for Caitlin."

"Is this about her fiance?" I asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, it is," Cisco replied, surprised, "How did you know?"

"Barry told me yesterday," I answered.

"So you _were_ with Allen yesterday. How cute," Cisco teased. I cringed.

"We were just discussing the similarities between our mothers' murders. We think they're connected," I asserted quickly, "So what exactly is going on with her fiance? I heard you guys found him alive?"

Cisco hesitated.

"Hey, the Flash may be one thing, but this guy is another," Cisco said solemnly, "And this guy is far more dangerous than the Flash could ever be. You might want to stay out of this for your own safety. And I'm not saying this to exclude you, or because of Wells. I'm saying this because I _need_ to."

"Oh," I murmured. Cisco - and even Barry - did seem a bit cautious about this. I couldn't imagine the state Caitlin would be in, after finding out that the man she would marry had died and was alive again. Of course, I wanted to know more about this, but Cisco seemed truly afraid of what he had told me.

"And hey - please don't tell Dr. Wells you know about this," Cisco urged.

"Why? Is he related to your Team Flash stuff? Caitlin's fiance, I mean?"

"He actually passed away before Team Flash was born. We're just trying to find answers about what exactly happened to him to see if we can bring him back," Cisco described, "And, to be honest, the less people that know about this, the better. Sorry I can't tell you more, Artemis."

"No problem, bro," I replied, understanding the gravity of the situation, "But, you know, if you need any help, I'm always here. And I'd love to help."

Cisco smiled at me, and he parked the car in front of the Lab. We entered the tunnel entrance together, and were greeted by Dr. Wells and Caitlin seated behind a desk in the Cortex, both reading copies of the morning paper.

"Morning!" I chirped, glad to be back.

Dr. Wells raised an eyebrow up at me questioningly as he held the paper open in front of him, and Caitlin set her copy down, giving me a devious smile.

"Well if it isn't today's _Local Celebrity_ ," she greeted, getting out of her chair to walk over to me, where she embraced me.

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Artemis, you're in the paper," she explained, holding up the newspaper she was reading. I took it from her and faced the featured article. My eyes were ready to jump out of their sockets.

 ** _MODERN DAY EINSTEIN HIRED AT STAR LABS; VAN KLEISS DAUGHTER SHOWS GREAT PROMISE IN CENTRAL CITY_**

As if that wasn't horrifying enough, the upper half of the sheet of paper is embezzled with several large pictures of me - one of me giving the commencement speech at my MIT graduation ceremony only weeks before, a picture of me working with Cisco on the Shocker, another picture of me beating the metahuman from a few days ago about the head with a crowbar.

The last photo - of me in my light pink dress, leaning back in Barry's arms in dip-position, from last night's dinner, made my stomach flip.

I froze and dropped the paper from my hands as if it was hot iron.

"Don't be upset," Caitlin cajoled, picking the paper up and smiling at me reassuringly, "It's actually a great article."

"Who did this?" I demanded in a quiet voice.

"The by-line says it was written by Iris," Dr. Wells answered from the other desk, looking over his paper at me.

" _Iris?_ " I gasped, "But I never gave her the permission to-"

"Morning everyone," a familiar male voice announced, interrupting me. I slowly turned and watch Barry stroll into the Cortex, joining me, Cisco and Caitlin. He too froze in his tracks as he saw me glare at him, newspaper returned in my hand.

 _She's hard at work writing this new article. You really did inspire her that other day, you know..._

"Hi Barry," I crooned softly, steeling my expression, trying to find my words.

"So, Barry," Cisco began, putting his arm over Barry's shoulder, "Tell me more about _this_ little escapade you had with Artemis," he asked, pointing at the picture of me falling in Barry's arms.

Barry blushed brightly, and looked over to me for support. I said nothing, and watched him fluster as he tried to cover this one.

"Yeah, we, um, went out for dinner yesterday," Barry managed easily.

"You said Cisco and Eddie wouldn't find out about it," I reminded him.

"The entire city knows about it now," Dr. Wells retorted with a small laugh, still at the table, before turning back to his work. Caitlin broke into an entertained smile.

"You know, this doesn't really _look_ like a dinner," Cisco mentioned, "I don't know - I don't see any food. I don't see any tables. I don't see a restaurant. I only see two young, happy, eligible people, enjoying each other's company."

"Did you want us to detest each other's company?" I muttered.

"I took her to Englewood," Barry confessed.

"Wow," Caitlin interposed, "Englewood. That's... pretty far. And pretty nice."

"It _was_ nice," I muttered, before remembering something. I snapped my fingers with recollection, and turned on my heels to face Barry.

"Speaking of nice things," I began. Barry's confusion turned to recognition.

"Oh! Right!" He exclaimed, addressing Cisco, Caitlin and Dr. Wells, "Yeah, if you could give us two a moment, please..."

He ignored the puzzled looks on Cisco's and Caitlin's faces, and whisked me away to the hallway, where we would be out of earshot.

"Look, I've been thinking about last night..." he started.

"Oh, good." I retorted, " _One_ of us finally made sense of what that was, then."

Barry ignored my comment and continued.

"And I wanted to apologize."

"Apologize?" I asked in disbelief.

"Yes. I need to... get somethings off my chest before I can invest in a relationship with you."

"Oh," I answered, though I was a bit confused, "Like what?"

Barry pressed his lips together, and mulled it over for a moment.

"See, I'm not the most honest person around you -"

"No kidding. Cisco said he had no idea who took his car, and I thought you said you had permission."

"-And I definitely need to work some of that out before we start anything together," Barry explained, "Because I don't want for you to be dating someone you don't entirely know."

So, Old Bear had _more_ secrets up his sleeves?

"And hey - I thought we said were just friends?" I inquired.

"And we are," Barry assured, "And we'll stay that way until -"

"What kinds of lies are you telling me?" I interjected, confused. As far as I was concerned, we only had our mothers' deaths in common, and our relationships with STAR Labs.

"Nothing," Barry defended immediately, "Just.. about who I really am. And what I do. And what I _can_ do."

"You're a forensics scientist. A crime scene investigator," I recalled, "What's there to lie about that?"

Barry grimaced.

"See, just give me some time to think about this. I don't know how to tell you," he pleaded.

I studied him. He seemed as if he was truly in some sort of dilemma. And he _wanted_ to tell me. He said he wanted time.

What could possibly going on? Was everything alright with him?

"Barry, is everything okay with you?" I asked, bewildered, "Is something bothering you?"

"Yes - no. Yes," he tried, "Actually, I don't know."

"Well, that's... fine," I answered, unsure of how else to respond, "Just let me know if there's anything I can do to help?"

"You can, actually," Barry brought up, "Trust the Flash. He's not your enemy."

"What does the Flash have to do with any of this?" I questioned.

Barry was getting weirder and weirder by the moment. He said he knew the Flash - the Flash worked with STAR Labs on occasion, and Cisco, Caitlin, Barry and Dr. Wells all knew his personal identity. Barry said he wasn't the Flash, so I didn't see how the metahuman was relevant in this.

Barry looked down and sighed.

"Everything, Artemis."

Everything? What did that mean? We were talking about being in a relationship, and how Barry had lies. Now, the Flash was critically involved as well?

"Wait, does this have anything to do with those flowers he gave me?" I asked, realization settling through me, "Dude, you've _got_ to believe me when I tell you there's nothing between us. I was joking about dating him. I - I don't even know who he is, and as far as I'm concerned, even if the Flash _does_ like me in that kind of way - which he probably doesn't - there's _no_ way I'd be able to reciprocate. For one, he's a metahuman. I can't even get a human guy to date me - you think I'm going to step my game up and date some superhero in red leather? And two, I know nothing about him. What if he really _is_ the one from that night?"

Barry smiled grudgingly at me, and brought his hand to my face.

"See, that's where you're wrong."

"Where? My first point? Or the second one?"

"Both?"

"Barry - that makes no sense!" I declared, pushing his hand away, "And for the record, I'm on the same boat as you. The boat where you used to be _sane_ , at least. For now, I just want to focus on finding this yellow speedster - wherever he may be - and on keeping my job. There are _more_ than enough matters of confusion in my life."

He nodded in agreement, and we both walked back out, to where Cisco and Caitlin were discussing something on one of the computers, and Dr. Wells was reading something on another computer. Caitlin noticed us first.

"So what was that all about?" She asked, her voice full of concern.

"Probably just Artemarry angst," Cisco answered for us.

"That's more or less true," Barry allowed, before pulling out his phone, checking the time, "I'm going to be late. I'll see you all around."

He held his fist up to me for our habitual fistbumps, which I returned, before waving goodbye to the rest of the Lab, and leaving back down the entrance hallway.

Well that was anticlimatic, I thought, though I knew Barry and I were both getting what we wanted.

I turned and instead faced Dr. Wells, rubbing my hands together in anticipation, happy to be back at work.

"So - what are we doing today? Can I start with the work I talked to you about?" I asked excitedly.

Dr. Wells smiled.

"Not exactly..." he replied, signalling towards Caitlin.

"I really could use a bioengineer," Caitlin announced, from behind her computer.

"One eager bioengineer, at your service," I replied, walking to her side.

"I wanted some help diagnosing what's up with these biological exostructures," she explained, pointing to a virtual model on the computer screen, "I need to run a few scans on them."

The structure she showed me appeared to be a strange DNA sample that's been burned entirely through, and its matrix structure was human, enough, even though it's been been transmutated with dark matter and what appears to be ... ash, as if its been burned several times.

Much of the day was spent in helping her analyze the structure, with Cisco helping Dr. Wells build something in another room. Caitlin and I skipped lunch in order to continue working on the exostructure, and before I know it, it's time to go, and the four of us convened in the Cortex.

"Please tell me you both were _more_ productive than we were," Cisco pleaded, returning from one of the lab rooms with Dr. Wells, both removing working gloves from their hands.

"Yeah, we managed to get a lot done today," I said, turning to Caitlin, who was in the medical wing, running a physical scan on the actual sample of the exostructure.

"Dr. Wells and I still have quite a bit left to do," Cisco complained, sitting down in a chair, clearly exhausted.

"I can help you," I offered, "I have nothing to do for the rest of the day."

"That won't be necessary, Ms. Van Kleiss," Dr. Wells assured with a forced smile. Cisco and Caitlin looked over at him. This must be one of those things he doesn't want me to help with, I realized.

"Caitlin, will you need any help with those scans?" I called out to her, still wanting to be needed.

"No, it's fine, Artemis," she allowed, smiling graciously at me, "Thanks for your help, though."

"Ms. Van Kleiss, you're free to go home," Dr. Wells assured, "When you come in tomorrow, I expect you to start working on your individual project immediately."

"Will do, sir," I responded. I grabbed my things and said goodbyes to my colleagues, before eyeing an extra copy of the newspaper on one of the computer tables.

I walked over and picked it up, reading it for the first time.

 ** _MODERN DAY EINSTEIN HIRED AT STAR LABS; VAN KLEISS DAUGHTER SHOWS GREAT PROMISE IN CENTRAL CITY_**

 ** _By Iris West_**

 _If you haven't already heard about her or seen her yourself, Central City's very own STAR Labs has recently hired a new scientist who shows great promise in the face of helping keep our citizens safe from metahumans. Meet Artemis Van Kleiss, a biochemical engineer and a physicist, daughter of late Nobel Prize winners Laurus and Ariadne Van Kleiss. Ms. Van Kleiss is the genius whose technological invention was used to stop Rajeet Verma, the former circus acrobat turned telekinetic metahuman who has been rampaging thefts across the city. Van Kleiss' quick thinking and expertise skills with technology have led her to ..._

Not bad, Iris, I thought as I stood in the Cortex, reading on.

 _While she has proven herself to be one of the greatest scientists of this day and age - having not even reached 22 years of age - Van Kleiss also shows great compassion for helping others. When Roger Wahlberg AKA SilverShock attacked First Street this last Tuesday, I myself was a witness to this woman's bravery, and watched as she stepped out of the confines of safety to help save a child in the face of danger, and even stood her ground against him as SilverShock battled the Flash, effectively knocking the former out despite her own injuries during the attack, practically saving the entire street from his terror._

Okay? I thought skeptically, though I enjoyed the praise. I skimmed over the rest of the article, until I got to the end.

 _You can rest knowing that there's a new hero in town - one who will bring STAR Labs back to its former glory before the particle accelerator defamed it, one who passionately cares to use her knowledge of science to help us all in a unique and powerful way. And gentlemen, Artemis is single, so make your move quickly, because competition has already lined itself up to win this great young woman over. _

" _What_?!" I exclaimed, rereading the last part.

"You read the ending, didn't you?" Dr. Wells mused.

"She - she published a dating profile for me in the city newspaper!" I cried out in disbelief.

"I thought it was kind of cute," Caitlin remarked in the medical wing.

"I _don't_ want random guys flirting with me!"

"Yeah, you just want Barry," Cisco commented.

"I do not," I affirmed, folding the newspaper under my arm and turning to leave, "I need to have a word with a certain journalist."

I stormed out through the entrance hallway, and pushed the door open, before realizing I couldn't drive myself and didn't bring cash for the bus. Maybe I should go back inside and ask to borrow Cisco's car.

Wait, I didn't even know where the CCPN was, I realized. How was I going to get there if I-

"Ms. _Artemis_ , is it?" A low male voice asked.

I was startled, and almost dropped the newspaper from fear. I turned around. Nobody could be seen, anywhere. Chills shot up and down my back.

"Who's there?" I demanded, knowing for sure that I had heard someone call my name. Nobody responded.

"Reveal yourself!" I called desperately, preparing to fight physically, if needed, "I know the Flash!"

No, I didn't know the Flash, but I was afraid. I could easily run back inside the Lab, where Cisco or Caitlin could call him.

The air in front of me condensed into thick smoke, taking the ghostly form of a tall, skinny young man, covered from head to toe in uniform gray dust and smoot, standing before me.

"Thompson!" I gasped in fear, stepping away from him.

"So you remember me..." The metahuman said, his lips curling up into a small smile.

I gulped, and tried to regain composure.

"How - how did you find me?"

Thompson's smile turned apologetic, as he produced a copy of today's newspaper, turning the page so I was looking at Iris's article, the picture of Barry holding me in a dip pasted across the top of the page, beside the headline.

His smile melted, and his expression turned sad.

"I'm not here to hurt you," he said, "I wanted your help. And this article said you were a smart woman."

"What do you need from me?" I inquired, unable to find my breath in the face of the heavy smoke as Thompson approached me.

"For you to come with me," he replied, before disappearing completely as the air bloomed wildly into thick curls of smoke. I began coughing madly and my eyes burned with tears as I stumbled, trying to find my way out of the toxic fumes, to no avail. The air turned dark as night, and purely opaque, disabling my vision. I realized with fear that I had also lost my inherent sense of direction, unable to find the door to the Lab, which should have been only a few feet behind me.

I'm being kidnapped, I thought, as I collapsed onto my knees from weakness, gasping desperately for clean air through the intense, cigarette-scented fumes. I sat on the ground and futilely tried not to suffocate by covering my mouth with one hand, and dropped my phone to the ground with the other as I tried to dial for help, my fingers turning weak, numb and useless.

 _Iris West,_ I suddenly remembered, as a phenomenally painful headache pulsated in my forehead, as the lack of oxygen began to contuse my brain. I fought to cling to the image of her in her apron at Jitters, walking over to me and dropping a kiss on to crown of my head, murmuring _you are going to help me make a name for myself._

 _Oh yeah?_ I thought scornfully, as I coughed a wet, metallic-tasting liquid out of my mouth into my hand. Blood.

 _Iris, I might have let you debut yourself at the CCPN, but you just signed my death warrant._

My last thought was a silent prayer for help, before the pain of suffocation caused my body to writhe painfully, before it fell face-first onto the pavement, blacking everything out.

* * *

 **Please leave a review! :3**


	12. The Smoke and The Flash

**[Barry's POV]**

"Hey," I murmured quietly, holding a shivering Artemis in my embrace, several hours later, "It'll be fine. Nothing's going to happen to you."

She pulled away and looked at me with sad, brown eyes, her wet, cold hair clinging to the side of her face.

"I know," she replied in a low voice,"I'm just a little overwhelmed, that's all."

Her breathing soon turned shaky as she shuddered again, and I thought I saw tears fringe her lower eyelids. My suspicion was confirmed when she quickly wiped away at her inner eyes with the side of her hand, and gave me a weak smile in a supposed effort to hide her fear.

I closed my arms around her tighter, pulling her back in, and instinctively dropped a kiss on the center of her forehead before tucking her head under my chin.

It hadn't been an easy day for either of us...

###

I arrived for my weekly training procedures with Dr. Wells, Caitlin and Cisco around 5:15 pm that day, only to find Artemis' phone, wallet, keytag and a copy of the _Picture News_ scattered around the entrance, along with the faint scent of car exhaust.

Worried, I quickly took the items into the Cortex, and asked the trio where Artemis could have gone, to which Cisco joked that she was going to go to the CCPN to murder Iris for writing that article.

"She left without her phone, keys or wallet?" I asked, holding up her possessions. Cisco's, Caitlin's and Dr. Wells' eyes all widened at the sight, and Cisco immediately ran security footage from the cameras at the entrance, depicting what could have happened when Artemis left an hour or so earlier.

We watched in horror as Artemis appeared on the screen, leaving STAR Labs, seemingly confused then turning startled as a smokey metahuman materialized in front of her, before bursting into a thick cloud of dark fumes. When the air finally cleared, all that was left of Artemis were the things she had been holding in her hands.

Instinctively, I rushed into my suit, and bounded out the Cortex through the tunnel hallway into the city, determined to find Artemis and throw Andrew Thompson into the Pipeline once and for all.

"What have you got for me?" I questioned, wanting a plan as I rushed into the city.

 _(Give me a second. I'm trying to find any traces of unnatural amounts of smoke within Central City,)_ Caitlin replied through my comm system.

"I don't _have_ a second," I muttered, becoming aggravated, "She could be dead."

 _( Focus, Barry,)_ Dr. Wells chided, _(He won't be downtown. There's no way he could hide there without citizens notifying the police. His smoke is too strong.)_

 _(Check the rural county in Leawood. And maybe Red Forest Regional Park.)_ Cisco advised, _(From what I can tell, big and open areas would be the best place to hide a smoke signal that strong without anyone knowing for miles.)_

"Leawood. Got it."

With that, I charged through the city as fast as I could, heading northwest until the skyscrapers melted behind me. I dodged, darted and dashed over the cars commuting on the Central City highway - easily outrunning them by hundreds of miles - and made a run for the farming district. Within minutes, I had scoured through all 100 square miles of Leawood's rural county with no result to show for it.

"There's nothing in Leawood's farm county," I declared, disappointed, turning and zooming towards suburban Leawood, "Do you guys have anything else yet?"

 _(I'm sorry - we're not getting anything,)_ Caitlin responded with a heavy voice.

 _(He **has** to have taken her to Red Forest.)_ Cisco urged, _(The STAR Labs's satellite's not getting anything anywhere else. The city's security systems aren't showing anything either.)_

 _(Check Leawood itself first,)_ Dr. Wells prompted, _(I've worked out an algorithm that would help narrow down where Artemis could be, and there's a rather high possibility that-)_

"I'm already on it," I replied, zipping through rural-style homes and county buildings, searching every room, every closet, every inch as fast as I could, disappointment growing heavier inside me as each block proved to be devoid of Artemis or Smoke Ghost.

 _(Did you get anything?)_ a voice asked in my comms.

"No," I replied sorrowfully, though I refused to give up, "I'm onto Red Forest, now."

Red Forest Park had nothing.

Petersburg had nothing.

Englewood had nothing.

University Town had nothing. New Brighton had nothing. Chubbuck had nothing. Lawrence Hills, Mounds View, Danville, the South District - they _all_ had nothing.

I had checked all _ten_ districts of Central City, and Artemis was _nowhere_ to be found.

It's as if she had disappeared from the face of Central City altogether, I thought to myself in intense fear.

I spent the next two hours or so searching again - double, triple and quadruple-checking, checking _dozens_ of times again in the hopes that I might somehow have missed her, but my efforts showed nothing.

Panicking, STAR Labs alerted the police, and with my persistence, Joe had the entire squad pouring through the city, searching for Artemis, despite the fact that it was against protocol to have the whole department searching. Captain Singh himself engaged in the hunt.

Awashed with disappointment and overridden for fear of what could have happened, I careened back to STAR Labs. It was unlike us to... _not_ find a metahuman at all.

STAR Labs was pretty apt at hunting down missing metahumans.

My speed was pretty apt at taking them down.

Andrew Thompson, however, proved to be pretty apt at kidnappings before going completely missing.

"I've been running biotoxin scans throughout the city for hours," Caitlin claimed in a hurt voice, as she typed something in one of the Cortex computers, "I don't know why we're not finding anything."

Silence, as everyone kept working anxiously. I frantically paced back and forth in the Cortex, trying to imagine possible places Artemis could be. How could I have missed her?

"I should have let her stay and help me analyze the biostructure," she murmured in a heartbroken voice, shaking her head in dismay, "This is _my_ fault."

"You are not to blame," Dr. Wells replied without looking at her, keeping his eyes glued to the screen before him, "You couldn't have known this would occur."

"You're right. Caitlin's not to blame," I agreed, cold anger settling through me. I turned around and walked over to Dr. Wells.

"This is on _you_. If you'd just tell her what we're _really_ doing here, she wouldn't need to leave. She could stay as long as she wants, and would have been safe in the lab, and could've kept working, and none of this would've happened," I seethed, frustrated. Dr. Wells pressed his lips together, and gave me an expression I couldn't read.

"That shouldn't be the focus of your concern right now," he replied, his voice controlled,"Right now, we need to focus on finding the girl, and bringing her back alive and safe. And Barry, you of all people know why Artemis can't know about you."

I continued breathing heavily for a minute, staring Dr. Wells in the face, before sighing.

Dr. Wells' warning had not made sense, but if he was right, and Artemis did want to bring me down, then she needed to be kept away from the Flash for as long as possible.

"I'm sorry. I'm just worried about her."

"We all are, Barry," Caitlin answered.

"Why would Thompson do this? Why would he take _her_?" I questioned, "And _where_ could he have taken her that they can't be found?"

"Maybe they're not in Central City," Caitlin offered.

"Why _Artemis_ , of all people, though?" I pressed again, "And why can't we find them?"

"Judging by the fact that Thompson had Iris's article in hand when he found Artemis," Dr. Wells answered, "I'd say he took her because he was purposely searching for her. This isn't some heat-of-the-moment abduction. Thompson had this planned, and Iris's article led him right to her."

"What would Thompson want with her, though?" Caitlin asked.

"I don't know..." Cisco murmured, finally speaking up, "Has it ever occurred to you all that Artemis has always been... I don't know... _protective_ of him? She always said it wasn't his fault he was dangerous, or something like that."

"You think that's why he took her?" I asked in disbelief.

"I don't know," Cisco replied,"This isn't your typical ' _Kidnap A Damsel In Distress To Lure In Her Hero_ ' story. Whatever Thompson wants - it doesn't involve you. Artemis appears to be his sole target here."

I shuddered at Cisco's words, as horrifying scenarios of what Thompson could be doing to Artemis flashed through my head.

"That doesn't help us at all," I answered immediately, "It just makes the case worse - Thompson's gone into hiding, and Artemis is in danger, and we have no idea how to find them or how to save her."

"Maybe we should check surrounding cities?" Caitlin suggested, clearing her throat, "I mean - Central City has nothing. Keystone, Coast City, Evermount..."

"That might not be true," Cisco responded. Dr. Wells his wheelchair to face him, and Caitlin and I walked over to him.

"The South District," Cisco declared, showing us a map of the city. He zoomed in on the southernmost county, "Thompson's from the South, and had a job as an intern at a furnace factory in Factory Square. He has familial ties there, too. But see these dots?"

He typed in a program, and roughly ten or so blue dots scattered themselves across the district map.

"These are the _only_ known security cameras in the South," Cisco explained, turning to me, "Which means more than 90% of the district is unaccounted for. Which means Artemis could be anywhere there, since we know for a fact that she's not in the other districts. And it would make sense for Thompson to take her someplace he knows well."

"Cisco - I've checked the South District several times," I protested, though I understood his point.

"Even _with_ your speed, you're only one person," Caitlin interposed, "He could easily have been in a different area of the city while you were in South."

"That's true," Dr. Wells affirmed, "And there are hundreds of places they could be - in the slums, in Factory Square, the South Lake Neighborhoods, the WashTown. Barry, this could be our only hope."

I nodded, and bolted back out of the lab, sending loose papers flying everywhere.

I shot through Downtown and made my way to Central City's South District, the wind ripping through the exposed parts of my face and over my suit, my feet easily kicking the ground underneath me, the urban city rushing past me into a blur of lights, energy coursing through me, empowering me.

Running was my incurable addiction, and I couldn't seem to get enough of it. With my consistent training, I was now able to reach speeds of up to 600 miles per hour.

Once the slowest kid in gym - relentlessly ridiculed for my weakness, and now, I was the impossible.

Lightning crackled over me as I pushed myself to go faster - to find my friend, to save her from whatever wrath Thompson had in store for her - and eadrenaline surged through my veins, as I skidded to a stop, and addressed the gloomy, rundown part of town in front of me.

I had arrived yet again in the South District.

A word of advice to newcomers in Central City?

When looking to buy a home, avoid the South. When looking to go for a walk alone, avoid the South. When looking to raise a family or be with children, avoid the South. When carrying valuables on you, avoid the South.

In other words, if you valued your safety and enjoyed having your neck in one piece, _avoid_ the South.

The South District was Central City's poorest and most dangerous district, contrasting sharply with the beautiful, safe and family-friendly remainder. Nicknamed the CC Ghetto, it was home to several thieves, molesters, assaulters, rapists, murderers, gangsters, thugs - you name it, the South probably had it.

The police focused their efforts here most often - the streets almost always lined with cops, and I too had chased down several metahuman villains here, but the South's civil war of good vs. evil was never-ending.

Artemis was tough, I'll grant her that, but even she wouldn't be a match for whatever lurked in the shadows here, especially if she was helpless against a metahuman.

I pushed the thought away and sprinted into the area of the town that contained the slums, and scoured through them again.

Nothing.

I jetted over to Factory Square and helped myself to a decent search of the factories, combing every building, every room.

Nothing, I thought, annoyed.

 _(Barry, any luck?)_ Cisco asked.

"No," I answered reluctantly, my heart plummeting. I turned and sped off towards the neighborhoods.

Again, nothing. 

Now, WashTown.

Nothing.

 _(Keep going,)_ Dr. Wells pressed, though concern revealed itself in his voice, _(We'll find her. Don't worry.)_

I fought away any hopelessness, and braced myself, zooming over into the remaining parts of the town.

Nothing.

Nothing.

 _Nothing._

"Artemis, where _are_ you?" I muttered, kicking a can away from my foot. I sat down and hung my head, anguish searing my insides as I finally realized I had lost her.

A small beeping sound, like a ringtone, played in my comms.

 _(It's Joe,)_ Caitlin explained, answering the call, _(Joe, Any luck?)_

 _(We've got her,)_ Joe's baritone voice replied sullenly through the speaker.

"What?" I asked in astonishment, getting up.

 _(She's here,)_ I heard Joe say, _(At Cloverleaf.)_

 _(Is she safe?)_ Cisco inquired urgently.

 _(Joe, is she alright?)_ Caitlin questioned, full of an excited worry.

 _(I think so. She's fine.)_

I heard several sighs of relief, and I broke into respiteful smile.

I wanted to see for myself, though, and no doubt about it - Caitlin and Cisco would too.

I ran back to STAR Labs as quickly as I could, and grabbed Caitlin and Cisco on either side of me, my arms around their backs.

"Ready?" I asked, an eager smile spreading across my face as I leaned forward, about to break into a run again.

"Barry, wait!" Caitlin pleaded, looking up at me with surprised eyes.

"Your suit!" Cisco answered.

I glanced down, and pulled my arms away from them, and exhaled.

I groaned, speeding off into a separate room of the Lab and quickly changing into my jeans, sneakers, plaid dress shirt and blazer, before appearing back in the Cortex between Caitlin and Cisco in mere seconds.

"Now?" I asked rhetorically. Caitlin and Cisco smiled at me. I turned around and addressed Dr. Wells.

"Sir?"

"I'll have my caretaker pick me up and take me home," he stated, smiling as he took his glasses off to wipe at them, "I'll commune with you over the phone once I'm there."

I nodded at him, strengthened my hold on my friends, before zooming off into the city. Caitlin leaned in and clung to my torso, while Cisco threw his arms up, a foolish smile spreading across his face as he let out a loud "Wooooohooooooo!"

The air tore through us, and I turned, entering Cloverleaf, running all the way up to Artemis' apartment, before stopping in her living room.

"We okay?" Cisco murmured in a hushed voice, "Nobody's shirt caught on fire?"

"Where is she?" Caitlin asked the present officers standing in Artemis' living room, no doubt having been a part of the search.

"She's down at the lawns," One of them replied, "With Singh, Eddie and Joe."

"Yeah, Barry, how'd you guys miss them?" Another officer asked.

"Thanks," Cisco and I said unanimously, ignoring the officer's question, before the three of us left the apartment, and peered over the concrete ledge to the lawns four stories below us.

Sure enough, Artemis was standing in a blanket, being interrogated by Singh, Joe, Eddie, and a few other officers.

Aside from her hair looking frayed, and the soot stains across her clothing and face, she looked perfectly fine.

"Come on," Cisco urged, and the three of us ran over and scampered down four sets of stairs, myself easily outrunning Cisco and Caitlin even at human speeds. Once reaching the ground level, we sprinted out towards Artemis, before I forced myself to a stop and gagged. Cisco and Caitlin did the same, and I could tell they were having the same reaction I had.

The air around stank disgustingly of a putrid fume - an unholy mixture of car exhaust, cigarette smoke, and rat poison.

And the rancor was coming directly from Artemis.

Seeing how much time she had supposedly spent with a metahuman who gave off those sickening fumes, it only made sense she'd smell that way too.

Closer to her now, I could see Singh, Eddie and the others have their noses scrunched up as a feeble defense against the remnants of the smoke. Joe was the only one with the courtesy to show respect.

Cisco and I looked at each other and nodded, and braced ourselves against the rancor as we broke into a run again. As we got closer, we could hear their argument.

"Look, I don't care what you're saying," Singh urged, "You need to tell us where the boy took you, and where he is now."

"Sir, you have to believe me," Artemis argued stubbornly, "I can't tell you whe-"

"Artemis!" Cisco shouted.

She turned and faced us, and a relieved smile appeared on her face as she turned towards us.

"Hey guys! I've been wanting to see y-"

I cut her off by quickly grabbing her and squeezing her in an overly-thankful hug, holding my breath against the reeking stench emanating off of her.

"Barry," she groaned after a few seconds,"My ribs - can't breathe!"

Realizing that I might finish off whatever breath Thompson left in her, I dropped her, only for Cisco to surprise her with a worried bear hug. He pulled away after a moment, and Caitlin took her turn, wrapping her slender arms around Artemis's figure.

"We were so worried about you," Caitlin moaned with tearful eyes, pulling Artemis in again.

"It's fine," she stated, stepping away, "I'm fine, now, guys."

"Artemis, where _were_ you?" Cisco asked, "We searched the entire city for you!"

"Cisco - I'm okay!" Artemis protested, "It was all just a misunderstanding!"

"A misunderstanding?" I muttered in disbelief, confused. Artemis opened her mouth to explain, but was cut off by Eddie.

"Look, your _misunderstanding_ is a load of bull," Eddie declared angrily, "We need you to tell us _where_ Thompson took you, and where he's hiding. He's a danger to innocent lives."

Artemis glared coldly at him.

"And _his_ life isn't innocent, Eddie?" She retorted, "He's just a kid! He doesn't want these abilities!"

Did... Did Artemis just _defend_ the metahuman who kidnapped her?

I turned to Caitlin and Cisco. Both wore faces of shock and bewilderment.

"Look, young lady," Singh started, clearly short-tempered, "His innocence is besides the point here. We need to know where he is. He's a threat to our civilians, and needs to be taken care of. Tell us where he is _now_."

"I won't tell you _shit,_ " Artemis grumbled, stepping away from the officers, "You're only going to lock him up."

"You are openly defying an authority figure and are failing to comply with police orders," Singh warned, "Tell us where he is, or we'll have to place you under arrest."

"Artemis, don't do this," Joe cautioned, "You can't protect Central City by hiding Thompson's whereabouts. We have to know where he is."

"I'm sorry, Joe," Artemis muttered stubbornly, shaking her head, "But I refuse to tell the police anything."

Singh scowled at her, and exhaled impatiently.

"Lock this joke up, Thawne," he ordered, turning away, "I can't put up with this for much longer."

Eddie unhooked a set of handcuffs from his police belt, and stepped forward. Fear flashed in Artemis's eyes, but she grimaced and remained still, submissively holding her wrists out to him.

"Stop!" I ordered, shooting a hand out in front of Eddie before facing Artemis, "Maybe Thompson's putting her up to this..."

"What?" Singh questioned, irritated.

"Thompson, sir," I stated, "He might have threatened her into not disclosing his hideout."

"That... that makes sense," Joe agreed.

I turned towards the worried, confused and stubborn woman standing in front of me.

"Artemis," I began, keeping my voice even, "If Thompson has threatened to _hurt_ you or is _forcing_ you to keep his whereabouts a secret, then you should know you're safe. Please tell us where he is."

Artemis's anger froze in her eyes, and she looked down and sighed.

"Barry, I'm sorry," she muttered, "I can't tell anyone where he is. I _have_ to do this."

Puzzlement fleeted through me.

"Joe, may we have a word with our colleague?" Caitlin asked, noticeably upset. Joe nodded, and the three of us led Artemis away from the cops.

"What's gotten into you?" Caitlin admonished softly, "We're all worried for you, and want to make sure this doesn't happen again."

"We even had the Flash look for you," Cisco contended, "We didn't know what to do."

"Tell the Flash to stop looking, then," Artemis insisted, pulling away from us, "Because I'm fine. And Thompson's _not_ going to hurt anyone."

"We can't just leave a dangerous metahuman unsupervised," I argued, growing angry, "He kidnapped you!"

"Oh yeah?" Artemis challenged, glaring into my eyes, "Last time _I_ checked the Pipeline, the _Flash_ wasn't locked up in the core chambers. You trust _him_ blindly. Let me trust Thompson."

"Artemis, that's different," Caitlin urged, "The Flash isn't a-"

"Who do you think you are?" I interrupted, my anger getting the better of me, "You go missing for almost five hours - _five_ whole hours, and everyone's worried - _everyone._ STAR Labs, Dr. Wells, the _entire_ police department, and when you do turn up, you don't tell us a single word about where you were? Then you challenge us about the Flash - who's been losing his mind trying to find you?!"

Artemis glowered at me.

"I'm sorry it turned out this way," she snapped, "But I can't - and won't - tell you where he is. I need to keep him a secret."

Caitlin's phone rang, and she pulled it out, distracting us.

"It's Dr. Wells," she murmured, putting the phone on speaker.

 _(Hi - what's going on? Is Artemis with you?)_

"Yeah, she's right here," Cisco answered, "And she's been a brat."

"Give the phone to me," Artemis demanded, her face lighting up with a smile, "Finally - someone I can talk to who I can _trust_."

Cisco's jaw dropped as he watched Caitlin give Artemis the phone. I watched her, shocked.

Artemis trusted Dr. Wells?

The Dr. Wells who she knew kept secrets from her? Kept her out of the Lab? Slightly despised her?

She wanted to talk to _him_ , and not us - her trusted friends?

As if I needed more confusion today...

"Hello? Sir?" Artemis asked eagerly.

 _(MS. VAN KLEISS - HAVE YOU ANY IDEA HOW PANICKED WE ALL WERE?!)_ Dr. Wells roared, _(WE'VE BEEN WORRIED RIGHT OUT OF OUR DAMNED MINDS, AND HAVE BEEN SEARCHING NONSTOP, AND HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!)_

"Are you done yelling at me?" Artemis asked after a moment, smiling brightly.

 _(You, young woman, have just given me the heart attack of the century - of the CENTURY,)_ Dr. Wells added, _(But yes - I'm done, for the most part. Would you care to tell me what happened now?)_

"I've just been given the opportunity of a lifetime," Artemis explained happily, before glaring at us, " _Don't_ follow me."

With that, she walked away with Caitlin's phone, and quietly spoke to Dr. Wells a good distance away from us.

I involuntarily began pacing again, unsure of what to do.

"Someone tell me what the hell is happening," I grumbled, bringing my hands to my face in sheer frustration.

"Artemis went _Taken 2_ on us," Cisco explained, concerned, "Then she stitched her mouth shut. Then she decided she could tell Dr. Wells, instead of the police."

"Instead of us," I huffed, irritated.

"At least she's telling someone," Caitlin protested hopefully, "Even if... nobody can tell why."

Cisco sighed and shook his head in confusion.

Behind us, a car screeched, and we saw a familiar blue sedan park itself by the curb. Iris got out of the car, and ran to us, her face red, as if she's been crying.

"Where _is_ she?" she pleaded, her voice cracking.

Caitlin gestured to Artemis, chattering happily with Dr. Wells two hundred or so feet away from us, pacing about in her blanket, clearly glad to be talking to Wells.

Iris charged past us, and made a beeline straight for her.

Artemis was facing the other way, and Iris grabbed her shoulder and turned her around, before pulling her arm back and shooting her fist forward, right into Artemis' unsuspecting face.

"Where _were_ you?!" Iris wailed, as Artemis stumbled backwards, her hands clutching her face from Iris's blow, "I was so scared!"

" _Iris_ ," Artemis seethed, from behind her hands.

Panicked, I sprinted right for the women. Tonight was not going to be the night my love interests would kill each other.

Cisco and Caitlin followed behind me.

Artemis finally drew her hands away, and revealed a nose that was crooked at a painful angle along the bridge, blood gushing over her mouth and down her chin. She scowled deeply at the sight of her blood on her fingers, and glared at Iris.

"Iris _West_ ," she spat, quickly jolting forward and striking Iris across the face. Iris flinched, and held her hand to her cheek.

"Iris, if you hadn't made your debut in the paper, _none_ of this would have happened," Artemis fumed, giving Iris the dirtiest look I had ever seen.

I quickly stepped in, and held my hands out in between the two women.

"Hey! Cool it!" I demanded, "Both of you!"

Iris broke into a sob beside me.

"I'm _sorry_!" she wept, "I didn't know this would happen!"

"You made your debut in the paper," Artemis breathed, still upset, before her anger immediately turned into unsuspecting surprise, "Iris, you made your debut in the paper!"

Iris gave her a curious look, tears still sparkling in her eyes.

"You're an official journalist now!"

To mine, Iris's, and Cisco and Caitlins' surprise, Artemis easily darted around me and enveloped Iris in a quick hug.

"Congratulations, Iris!"

"I, uhm, thank you, Artemis," Iris gushed, wrapping her arms around Artemis, "I couldn't have done it without you. I owe my success to you."

Cisco and I gaped in utter astonishment, as the two hugged each other.

"Amazing," I murmured in confusion.

"Did Iris and Artemis just hit each other?" Cisco asked, "And then hug each other?"

I reluctantly nodded.

Caitlin bent down and picked something off of the grass - her phone. She put it to her ear.

* * *

 **[Caitlin's POV]**

"Sir?" I asked.

 _(Caitlin? What happened? Where's Artemis?)_ Dr. Wells asked.

"She... kind of got punched in the face by Iris," I answered.

 _(Is she okay?)_ Dr. Wells asked with surprising concern.

"I think so. She appears alright," I replied with uncertainty.

"My nose is probably broken," Artemis replied dazedly from Iris's embrace.

"Nevermind - her nose is broken."

 _(See to it, then,)_ Dr. Wells declared, _(Is Captain Singh nearby?)_

Eddie jogged over to us, followed by Joe. I glanced around to see if Singh was around, but couldn't see him.

"Did you just hit Iris?!" Eddie demanded, pulling Iris away out of Artemis's arms.

"Iris hit her first," Barry defended, though it was obvious to anyone he was still mad at Artemis.

"Yeah, do you _not_ see all this blood, Detective?" Cisco retorted, putting a protective arm over Artemis.

Joe gasped at the sight of blood slowly gushing from Artemis's smashed nose.

"Joe, Dr. Wells would like to speak to Captain Singh," I announced, handing him the phone.

Joe nodded and took the phone, and walked away with it.

"Sorry," Artemis stated guiltily, "I was pretty pissed at her."

"You're not the one to apologize here," Iris assured, "I wrote and published an article about you in the paper, told the entire city where you worked and led a metahuman right to you, then punched you in the nose out of unrestrained anger."

"How come _I'm_ the one threatened with arrest, then?" Artemis joked, facing Eddie.

Eddie broke into a smile, but it melted quickly.

"So, are you going to tell us where he is, or not?"

"Nope," Artemis quipped, wiping blood off of her face with her sleeve and smearing it across her cheek unintentionally, "Dr. Wells approves of what I'm doing."

Barry crossed his arms and gruffed in annoyance.

"Artemis," I called, getting her attention. I held up my hands, "I need to set your nose."

"You're going to _what_?" She asked.

"Cisco, hold her," I ordered.

Cisco quickly stood behind Artemis, and pinned her hands behind her back, to her surprise.

"What are you doing?" She asked with uncertainty, watching with wide eyes as Cisco stood behind her.

"Close your eyes," I assured, giving her a small but promising smile, "It'll hurt more if you struggle."

Artemis gulped, but obeyed, and I carefully aligned my fingers with the break on her face, before quickly grabbing it and fixing it in place with a clear, audible C _rick!_

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" Artemis cried out, collapsing to the ground, grabbing her nose and breathing heavily. Cisco tried to help her up, but she rose on her own, and smiled with her eyes shut, "That felt horrible - but I can breathe now. Thanks, Cait."

I smiled back at her and fished a clean handkerchief out of my coat pocket, and wiped away at the blood on her face. She took it from my hands and finished cleaning herself, before cringing at the sight of her own blood.

"Well, today was an interesting day," Eddie scoffed.

Barry scowled deeply, and crossed his arms, and watched as Iris stepped forward, apologizing to Artemis again.

His behavior was... extremely uncharacteristic of him, I noted.

Barry was one of the most composed people I knew, and always had control over his emotions.

Today, though, I saw a completely different side of him. He had turned angry, impatient, worrisome, and tempestuous.

He hadn't broken out like this _even_ when Iris had been taken by Tony Woodward.

I walked over to him, and rubbed his back supportively. He exhaled quickly, and looked away.

"You okay?" I murmured.

"No," he whispered, "I spent all day searching with no luck. Thompson got away."

"We got Artemis back," I offered, trying to remind him of the positive side.

Barry sighed slowly.

"We don't know how she got back, or where she was, or what happened. She won't tell us anything. And I consider that a loss, not a victory."

I took a deep breath, and nodded, understanding his defeat.

Joe and Captain Singh returned to us, along with a third cop, and Joe handed me back my cell phone.

"You're free to go," Captain Singh stated, addressing Artemis, "Dr. Wells is under the impression that what we're facing is beyond our power, and you're the only one capable of dealing with it."

"Don't know how he managed to convince us," Joe muttered with a sigh, before giving Artemis a sheepish smile. He placed a hand on her shoulder, "You stay out of trouble, okay? The police has your back."

"Dr. Wells is Defense Attorney Wells, too?" Cisco inquired, facing Artemis in astonishment, "How did he let you get away with this? What on earth are you up to?"

Artemis smiled and shrugged.

"It's time for us to head back. We've spent quite a lot of time dealing with you today, Ms. Van Kleiss," the third officer claimed, "But this doesn't give you a free Get Out Of Jail card. Anything goes awry, you're behind bars. And even Wells won't be able to save you then."

"Understood," Artemis assured.

"Time for us to go too, then," Eddie stated, putting his hand in Iris's.

Iris turned and smiled at Artemis, before addressing Barry.

"Bear, you coming with us?"

Barry shook his head no, still scowling.

"Oh," Iris murmured, "I suppose you'll want to stay here. After all, you two must have missed each other a lot."

"Oh, we're not a two," Artemis answered quickly.

"Negative one," Barry muttered.

"What?" Artemis questioned, as her and Iris gave him confused looks.

"I _said_ you're a negative one," Barry replied.

Artemis raised an eyebrow at him.

"Out of ten. You're a negative one out of ten."

"Oh...Oookay, then..." Iris mumbled, locking her hand tighter in Eddie's and wearing a new smile, "Guess you guys have some working out to do. See you at home, Barry. Goodnight, Artemis. Goodnight, Cisco and Caitlin."

We all mumbled goodbyes and watched the police leave with Iris, before Artemis sighed loudly and clapped her hands together.

"To be honest, today sucked," she declared, stinking of decay, "I'm going to head home. You guys wanna come too?"

"Of course," Cisco answered, as the duo hooked arms, "I am _not_ letting you out of my sight again until I figure out what the hell is happening here."

Cisco and I walked on either side of Artemis, making small talk about Dr. Wells saving their butts, and Barry lumbered behind us, in his quiet sullen gloominess. I tossed him a worried glance.

It was unlike him to be so... moody, and I was willing to bet that Artemis was at fault for this.

When we finally reached the door of Artemis's apartment, she groaned and stomped her foot.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I was supposed to get groceries today. I have nothing to eat," she grumbled, "And I would have gone today, except for the fact that today hasn't gone as expected."

"No," Barry seethed in sheer frustration, stepping forward so he towered over Artemis. He pointed at her accusingly with his index finger, startling her.

"No. You know what you need to do? You need to take a _shower_. You smell like a dead rat. Afterwards, we're going to have a _very_ long talk with you. It is _not_ okay to get kidnapped, then _defend_ your assailant, and leave us all worrying our heads off about you, while acting completely carefree and cool yourself. This is beyond absurd, and I am extremely _extremely_ unhappy with how today has played out."

Artemis's fear melted into a harsh glare, and she straightened her posture, and pointed her own hand back at Barry, forcing him to back away.

"How about you lower your tone, huh, _sunshine_?" She demanded coolly, "Because I do _not_ appreciate being yelled at. You can't talk to me that way, then expect me to play nice and friendly with you. Fuck off."

With that, she pushed her door open, and stormed inside, slamming the door right in Barry's bewildered face.

"You want me to - to fuck off?" He asked the door, "Fine. I will."

"Good," a voice replied from the other side, "Then we're both happy."

The easiness of her response unnerved Cisco and me, and Barry groaned in vexation. His hands laced themselves in his hair, and his rage revealed itself in his eyes.

"I _cannot_ believe I tried to kiss you yesterday," he fumed, "You are _the_ most impertinent, irritating and pretentious person I have _ever_ met."

My insides jumped as the door opened, and Artemis appeared, offended.

"Oh - I'm _pretentious_ now?" Artemis challenged, "At least I can make _sense_ of my feelings, Barry."

Barry scowled at her, and Artemis continued venting, counting reasons off on her fingers.

"Don't play dumb. You've been giving me _nothing_ but mixed signals. You're warm and friendly one moment, then you completely shy away and act as if I'm an alien from another planet. _Then_ you start spending all this time with me and start growing on me, and then go mooney-eyed over Iris. Yesterday, you took me out on what was practically a date only to tell me it was platonic, _then_ tried to kiss me, and now this morning you apologized and told me you don't want anything to do with a relationship til you get these so-called secrets cleared up."

Barry breathed quietly for a moment, before finding a response.

"Well, what do you want me to do, then?" He demanded.

"Leave," Artemis answered, "Don't talk to me again til you've got your mind sorted out. Until then, I want nothing to do with you."

Barry exhaled, obviously hurt by Artemis's remarks, but he gave a small, almost evil smile, that depicted consent.

"Likewise, Van Kleiss," he assured, surprising us all.

"I actually kind of hate you, Allen."

"Don't worry. It's _mutual,_ " Barry remarked in a light tone.

"Should we, um, leave you guys alone?" Cisco asked shyly, clearly uncomfortable in their dispute.

"No need," Barry answered, "I was just on my way out. I don't have any reason to be here."

He turned and walked away, footsteps heavy and arms stiff - still offended and upset.

Artemis huffed and threw the door closed, leaving me and Cisco outside her door, in a state of confusion.

"They're both overreacting," I stated.

"And hopelessly in love," Cisco affirmed, giving me a knowing smile, "We both know what to do with this."

"You get Barry," I answered knowingly, smiling back at him.

"And you deal with Ms. Mysterypants," Cisco affirmed.

"Ms. _Mysterypants?_ " I asked, unimpressed.

Cisco shrugged and turned away.

"It's not the best I've come up with, but, hey, can _you_ make sense of what's going on here?"

I sighed and shook my head no in agreement, and watched Cisco smile as he raced after Barry, who had long since disappeared down the stairwell.

I turned and pushed my key into Artemis's apartment's door, and entered.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

A cold shower was what I needed most.

I stripped out of my stinking outfit and threw my clothes into my hamper, glad to be out of the stuffy, formal outfit, feeling relieved after hours of congestion.

I turned on the shower and stepped into my tub, letting the hard, cool drops cover me, before I sat down and hugged my knees, and closed my eyes, fighting to keep the burning tears down.

Today had been... so stressful.

 _"Ms. Van Klees?" a low, raspy intoned. I slowly opened my eyes, awaking from my unconsciousness._

 _Someone was trying to call my name._

 _"It's Van Kleiss," I answered in a mumble, managing to see the white beams of sunlight pouring in from a window, "Rhymes with 'ice'." _

_My eyes opened wide, and I made a sound between a surprised miff and a yelp, as I saw the worn down gray walls and ceiling above me, and felt a hard mattress underneath me, a pillow that was too soft and beaten under my head._

 _I was not familiar with these surroundings. _

_Alerted with fear, I shot straight up, and tried to control my panic._

 _"I'm sorry," the voice apologized. I slowly turned my head in horror, wanting to scream, wanting to cry, wanting to leave, wanting to go back to the safety of my friends and STAR Labs, after taking in what I saw._

 _Andrew Thompson was seated a good distance away from me, a water cooler to his right. Looking dark and phantom-like as ever, covered in gray ashes from head to toe, scowling._

 _He slowly got up and filled a paper cup with the water, and I shivered in fear as he walked towards me, holding the cup out._

 _I tried to back away, but the bed I was on was pushed up against the cracked wall of a huge room, the only door on the opposite side, where Thompson was._

 _I squealed in horror, as the boy got closer to me, a sad expression on his face._

 _"Don't hurt me," I begged, "Please. I can help you."_

 _The boy smiled reluctantly - the air around him suffocatingly thick with smoke, and he placed the cup in my hands._

 _"That's exactly why I brought you here. Drink," he ordered, before backing away from me._

 _My hands shaking, I lifted the cup to my mouth, and took the smallest sip. The water tasted and smelled of smoke, and I tried not to frown as Thompson watched me._

 _Thompson pulled out a copy of the paper, and flipped it open to Iris's article, before taking a seat beside me on the bed, the air around him ashy and gray with small fumes.._

 _"You're a biochemical engineer," he murmured, "A physicist."_

 _"Yeah..." I answered in fear._

 _"You work at STAR Labs, too. You've had experience with metahumans."_

 _"No... I just work with their tech. I'm not involved in their metahuman work."_

 _"Oh..." Thompson murmured, frowning gently as he looked away._

 _"That doesn't mean I'm incapable of helping you," I stated, "I remember you from the first time you, umm, kidnapped me. You were afraid. The police targeted you because of your powers, but they didn't see that you couldn't control them."_

 _"Oh, I can control them just fine," Thompson interrupted nervously, giving me a tiny smile, "How else do you think I brought you here?"_

 _I frowned._

 _"Controlling my powers isn't the issue here, Ms. Van Kleiss. I want you to help me get rid of them. I want my life back."_

 _###_

I reached over to the dial in the wall, and turned it, forcing the water to become icy cold as it washed over me, and at a faster, more intense rate, as the flashbacks continued.

Thompson had shown me where the accident had happened, and how he had become Smoke Ghost.

###

 _"MIT, huh?" he asked with a friendly smile, leading me downstairs to where the building opened up into a factory for building gas-powered furnaces, "That was one of my dream schools."_

 _"You're a student?" I asked, following him through the abandoned floor._

 _"I was a student. I was a freshman - an electrical engineering major at Central City University. I was a Dean's Scholar."_

 _"Wow," I responded, though I knew little of CCU. Still - the boy had had a promising future._

 _"One of my professors hooked me up with an internship here. And I loved it. I worked with a man named Kyle Clemson - he was an engineer of industrial design, and I was his assistant. We designed a plasma-powered furnace that would be more gas-efficient and would save hundreds of dollars per year, and would life easier here in the South. Most of the people here are poor, so it had great promise."_

 _"I'm sorry - did you say a plasma-powered furnace?"_

 _"Yeah," Thompson replied, smiling proudly, "I designed a plasma-inducting system that would charge on its own and would balance out the burning fuel - letting the furnace run several years longer than a regular one, and use only a fraction of the energy."_

 _"Again, wow," I remarked, smiling at Thompson as he led me to a small workspace, "You're pretty smart, then."_

 _"Ehhh..." Thompson joked, "Probably not as smart as you, but yeah, I've got a few tricks up my sleeve. I love engineering."_

 _"Same," I agreed, smiling at Thompson as he led me into an abandoned lab within the factory._

 _"Personally, I never cared much for the particle accelerator. I had a lot of work to do when Harrison Wells had his huge opening ceremony when he turned it on. Clemson and I were here, working on our own project. We had finished designing our plasma furnace, and - I don't remember everything clearly."_

 _"Tell me what you do remember, then," I urged kindly, feeling sorry for the young man. _

_"Clemson and I, along with another intern, powered our furnace on that night, and on TV, Harrison Wells turned his accelerator on at the same time. But, as you know, it exploded. STAR Labs is pretty far away from here - it's on the other side of the city. The three of us tried to turn the furnace off before the blast from the explosion would hit us, but we were panicking, and that didn't help our case at all."_

 _I stood and continued listening._

 _"Clemson was at the operating system, I think, and the other intern was working away with the wiring. I tried to take out the plasma inductors so I could turn the furnace off physically. When the blast hit, all I remember is the furnace exploding right in front of me. Next thing I know, my body was on fire, the inductors have shattered in my hands, and have covered me with the burning plasma, and Clemson and the other intern have been electrocuted to death. When the police arrived, my body felt as if it was liquid - except it was still smoking - and they thought I killed them. I've been on the run since."_

 _Pity washed through me. Here was a young, capable boy - a genius, really - with a burden he didn't deserve._

 _Realization settled heavily in my torso as something clicked in my brain._

 _"The plasma," I murmured, looking up at Thompson, "The plasma exploded, and - combined with the dark matter fallout from the particle accelerator - it must have bonded onto you on a molecular level, Andrew."_

 _Andrew looked at me with a heartbroken expression._

 _"That's what made you a metahuman. You have the ability to change states of matter because plasma can do the same, and your power over smoke must come from the furnace exploding into you."_

 _Andrew looked down, and held out his hands. By will, they turned wispy, black smoke easily coming off of them as he saw himself in a new light._

 _"You're right!" he exclaimed, "It's a combination of the plasma, the smoke, and the dark matter from the particle accelerator!"_

 _I coughed._

 _Andrew's smile melted as he willed for the smoke to disappear._

 _"Sorry! I forgot!"_

 _"It's *cough* okay! *cough*"_

 _We were interrupted by a loud zooming sound outside. We quickly walked over to the lab's open window, and several stories below us, saw a red blur racing down the street._

 _"No! Not him!" Andrew whispered, fear fleeting through his eyes._

 _"It's the Flash," I murmured in amazement, watching as the speeding being zipped into the building across the street from us, his bright yellow lightning sparking behind him as we heard a thunder of footsteps - he was running through the stories in the building._

 _He was looking for something._

 _STAR Labs must have sent him to come for me, I realized._

 _Before I could react, Thompson grabbed me and pulled me in beside him, and smoke dissipated around us. Holding me and shrouding us in clear smoke, he jumped outside - hovering several feet in the air - both of us barely visible._

 _Not being able to see myself scared me, and Thompson tightened his hold around me as, below us, the Flash darted out of the other building and ran into the furnace factory. I could hear him racing around inside, soon passing through the room we had just been standing in._

 _"Hey!" I protested, once the Flash left and Andrew flew back into the room, "That was my ticket home!"_

 _I punched the boy in the arm out of fury, and the dark fumes strengthened themselves around us, Andrew scowling at me in surprise. He took a deep breath, and the smoke calmed down._

 _"You can't trust him," Andrew answered, "He's dangerous. If he finds me, he'll kill me."_

 _"Kill you?" I questioned._

 _"I'm a wanted criminal. The cops search for me day in and day out. He's working with them - if he were to find me, and run at top speed and punch me in the face, I won't have a face left."_

 _"Do you know if he's killed before?" I asked quietly, remembering the murders of Nora Allen and my mother, Ariadne Van Kleiss._

 _"I wouldn't think so," he responded, "The city worships him like he's some hero. If he killed someone, he'd be wanted dead, too. Funny how fate works. I have powers - but I'm a wanted man, needed to be captured. He has powers - he gets to run loose, run free, nobody searching for his secret hideouts."_

###

Poor Andrew was just as afraid of the Flash as I was, though we had differing reasons why. I stayed in the shower for a few more minutes - enjoying how the cold turned my body numb, waking me up, though I still had trouble breathing, and was wheezing with every breath.

I turned off the water and stepped out of the tub, and wrapped myself in a towel, before clothing myself. Tired beyond reason, I plopped face-down on my mattress, too exhausted to lie down properly under the blanket, head above pillows and whatnot.

###

 _Andrew asked if he could show me other areas of interest - his hideout - the room at the highest level of an abandoned slum building, before he had to go ghost again - the Flash had returned, and was noticeably upset._

 _He didn't know me personally - why did he want to find me so badly? Was it because he actually wanted to kill me, like he had done to my parents? Or was it out of worry, for Caitlin, Cisco and even Dr. Wells?_

 _"No doubt about it - he's looking for you," Andrew mentioned, "STAR Labs probably thinks I kidnapped you."_

 _"Seems like they've got the police thinking the same," I muttered, and we watched as police cars poured into the streets, the sky turning deep blue behind us, signifying the arrival of the night._

 _"Look," he started, "I don't want for this to be forced. I'm not going to hurt you, or kill you, or do anything bad to you - but I desperately need your help. There's nobody else who will take me in."_

 _"Wow. Did I mention I work at a lab where we study metahumans?"_

 _" No. I'm not going anywhere near that place. Wells took my life away - It's his fault Clemson and Gray are dead, and it's his fault I'm living this kind of life. I hate him with a passion. If you take me there, I might not be able to restrain my anger - or my smoke, for that matter."_

 _"What?"_

 _"My smoke - it's controlled subconsciously. You told me so the last time we met. My fear causes smoke, as does my anger, my rage, my sadness. I didn't know it then, but you pinpointed it perfectly. After I found that out, I've been able to control my abilities better."_

 _"How come you're always smoking, then?"_

 _"Hmm?"_

 _"You're always smoking. You've never stopped, during the entire duration I've been here. Can't you stop the smoke?"_

 _Andrew sighed wistfully._

 _"I'm sorry, Artemis," he stated sadly, "But this is the best I can manage."_

 _Even at the moment, smoke was slowly whirling around his thin, muscular frame, making him look like a teenaged poltergeist. If I stood too closely to him, I wouldn't be able to breathe._

 _"Well, Danny Phantom, I respect that. Thank you... for trying, I guess. But don't worry," I assured with a smile, "I will get you your life back. I will help you, and clear your name."_

 _Andrew smiled earnestly at me, and blushed._

 _"You know, I'd hug you, but you'd suffocate," he joked._

 _I scowled, and his smile melted as he saw my reaction._

 _"Err, sorry."_

 _I broke into a sheepish smile and shrugged._

 _"It's fine, kid. I'm just messing with you. Although, yes, I would prefer not to die."_

 _"Artemis?"_

 _"Yeah?"_

 _"I need you to promise me something."_

 _"What is it?"_

 _Andrew loomed closer to me, all signs of easiness gone from his expression. He looked at me with hazy gray eyes, a deep scowl set on his ghost-like features. I gulped, and backed away._

 _"Don't tell anyone about this," he warned ominously, "Not a living soul."_

 _"I - I won't. You'll be safe. Nobody's going to find you," I promised, before realizing something, "But Andrew?"_

 _"Yes?"_

 _"If one thing goes wrong, I'm going to turn you in."_

 _"Say what?"_

 _"You hurt me, you hurt anyone, you slip - and I'll give you up. If you want me to help you, I need to know nobody will get hurt."_

 _"You honestly believe I'm going to go hurt people?" Andrew asked in disbelief._

 _"No," I acquiesced, "But the city already trusts one metahuman who has been involved in a murder. I can't do the same."_

 _"What?" Andrew gasped, "The Flash is-"_

 _"It's just a hunch," I cut in, "I don't have any proof. Don't be running out trying to stop him, or whatnot, or he'll punch your face off," I reminded with a smile._

 _"But I need for you to not have any attention at all, if we want this to work."_

###

With that, I had promised to visit Andrew a few times a week.

It was a miracle, really.

I needed an answer to solving my metahuman problem - how to use vankleissium to take their abilities away, restore them to their human forms - and a metahuman had willingly volunteered as a test subject.

I had told Andrew what I planned to be doing, and he whole-heartedly agreed.

"You're the scientist here," he answered with a smile, giving me full consent to use his DNA to study the effects.

Andrew had later used his ghost form to drop me off back at Cloverleaf before going back to his hideout in the South District. Joe, Eddie, Captain Singh, and a few other police officers saw me appear, and immediately began grueling me with questions, after giving me water and a blanket - the kind given to trauma victims - and checking to see if I was okay.

Then, Barry, Caitlin and Cisco arrived, each one of them panicked and frantic with worry.

Then came Iris, who was so upset, she punched me in the face and broke my nose.

I had broken my promise to Thompson and told Dr. Wells everything - except for where we had been. Dr. Wells was actually rather impressed and consented to my crazy plans, and promised not to tell anyone.

I felt horrible betraying Andrew - but I _needed_ Dr. Wells to be on board with me. I _had_ to show him I deserved to stay at STAR Labs, or I'd never have the means to help Andrew in the first place.

Dr. Wells had talked the police into leaving me alone, and saved my entire operation, saved me from relentless interrogation and jail.

I owed that man so _much_ , I realized. Without his help, none of this would be possible.

Barry had been pissed I had been missing, though, and lashed out at me. I lashed right back - annoyed with him for being so demanding. I let out some of my anger regarding his confusing advances too, though, and he stormed off, angry beyond measure.

I covered my face with a pillow, wishing Andrew had just suffocated me, and I hadn't actually told Barry to _fuck off._

Impertinent.

Irritating.

Pretentious.

Barry, you were absolutely right...

Reckless.

Impulsive.

I wondered what else Barry thought I was.

I told him I hated him, and didn't want to see him again, and he told me the feeling was mutual.

 _God_ , I was a hopeless loser.

I flipped over to my stomach again, unsure of what to do with my tangled nerves, when I heard sounds outside my room.

I closed my eyes and sighed as I got up, and grabbed a handtowel, before opening the door.

"Hey, Artemis," Cisco chirped, seated next to Caitlin at my kitchen counter.

"Hey," I mumbled back, rubbing the towel through my hair, "What are you guys doing here?"

"We thought we'd stay and make sure you didn't get kidnapped again," Caitlin assured, giving me a kind smile.

I sighed and smiled.

Cisco gave me a strange, curious, almost _awestruck_ , look.

"Do I still smell like, what was it Barry said? A dead rat?" I asked, worried.

"Oh - no!" Cisco assured, "I was just... mesmerized by your hair."

"My hair?" I questioned, not believing him, continuing to run the towel through the black mess.

"Yeah, it's the first time I've seen it not in a bun, or something."

"It's gorgeous," Caitlin complimented. I pressed my lips together in something between a smile and a grimace.

"It's wet. It's a huge, uncontrollable mess when it's dry. Trust me - it needs to be tied up."

"Hey, take it from _me_ ," Cisco said, winking as he pointed to his own black hair, "You need to let loose from time to time."

I laughed, before breaking into a surprise cough, followed by wheezing.

"Erhm - sorry," I squeaked, coughing again, "I'm a wreck at the moment."

"Artemis, are you alright?" Caitlin pleaded, worry shining in her eyes.

I nodded, before noticing the smell of freshly cooked vegetables and melted cheese wafting through the air.

"Food?" I asked hopefully, turning my head and noticing the oven light on. I strode over, and opened the oven door. Inside was a wide glass dish, covered in aluminum.

"It's lasagna," Cisco explained, "Barry made it for you."

My heart skipped a beat, before breaking into a million pieces.

" _Barry_ did this?"

"He also grabbed some groceries for you," Caitlin added, "You did say you didn't have any food."

I heard a small slap, followed by Cisco crying, "Ow! Jesus, lady! I told you I'd stay out of her fridge from now on!"

I turned and opened the fridge door, and the remains of my broken heart crumbled completely, and plummeted right down to my feet.

Vegetables, fruits, milk, OJ, eggs, meats, canned goods...

I closed my eyes and scowled.

"Guys? On a scale of one to ten, how mean was I to him?"

"Negative one," Cisco joked.

"He'll be alright," Caitlin answered, "He felt just as bad for calling you names, if it makes you feel better."

"In his defense, though, we were all scared out of our minds," Cisco declared, "And people do and say strange things when they're not clear-minded. His favorite damsel, in distress, all alone, captured by a scary metahuman..."

"Hey - I don't play 'damsel in distress'. I got out just fine. I didn't _need_ help."

"To be honest, that's probably eating away at him too," Caitlin offered, "Barry likes being the protective, caring one. You're confusing him, being all independent and headstrong."

"Didn't know he preferred weak-minded girls," I retorted in a mutter.

"He _doesn't_. He just likes having things in his control," Cisco explained, "You? _Definitely_ not in his control. You go missing, and scare the living daylights out of him, then tune him out when he tries to care for you? He lost it."

"Am I supposed to apologize for being able to take care of myself?" I asked in disbelief.

"No. Absolutely not," Caitlin answered, smiling, "Your strength is probably what we all like best about you. But apologize for telling him to 'F' off."

I cringed on the inside, and nodded my head. The oven beeped beside me, and Cisco raced over and served me a hearty plate of lasagna, despite my protests, and the two kept me company for an hour or so.

They were amazing people, I realized with a deep sigh (followed by wheezes), and I was lucky to have them as friends.

"Heard the Flash was looking for me, too," I brought up. The duo looked at each other, before facing me.

"Yeah, of course he'd look for you," Cisco answered, as if it was obvious, "We're his friends, and one of _our_ friends went missing - not to mention that she was taken by a metahuman who was and _still_ is at large. It's his duty as protector of the city to look for people in situations like that."

"Answer me this, though," I interjected, "Do I know him in real life? Do I know him personally?"

"We cannot 'answer you that'," Caitlin replied softly, with a solemn smile.

I leaned back and crossed my arms in defeat, and huffed.

"Well, why not?"

"It's not our secret to tell, Artemis," Cisco described, giving me a pitiful smile. Him and Caitlin both rose from their seats, and walked over to me, enveloping me in a group hug.

"Promise you won't get kidnapped if we leave you?" Caitlin murmured.

"Promise," I repeated, resting my head on her shoulder.

"Good," Cisco maintained, ruffling my wet hair, "Because if you do, Barry will kill you."

"Not if I kill him first."

"Ahh, young love," Caitlin sang with a dreamy sigh, cupping the side of my face in her hand.

"We _better_ see you at work tomorrow," she threatened warmly.

"And you _better_ tell us what happened out there today," Cisco added.

"I can only promise one of those things, and it is _not_ the second," I replied, watching disappointment settle in their eyes, "Sorry, guys. I love you, but this is top secret. It's a Mission Impossible kinda thing."

"Is it?" Cisco inquired, narrowing his eyes at me. I smiled and nodded.

"Well, then," Caitlin replied.

"See you at Mission Command, then, Agent 007," Cisco jested, both giving me hugs before reluctantly leaving.

I smiled as I watched them leave, and softly closed the door, before helplessly crumpling to the ground, tears gushing from my eyes uncontrollably as sobs heaved through me.

I felt horrible - though to be honest, today hadn't even been that bad.

Thompson, though he looked terrifyingly ghostly and demon-like, had _not_ hurt me, and actually propelled my plans at STAR Labs forward. He was just a friendly teenager, scared by his circumstances, who wanted his old life back.

Dr. Wells had praised me.

The police had let me go.

Iris had apologized for writing that stupid article, even though it brought her success.

So why did my insides hurt so much?

Because of Caitlin, Cisco and Barry.

I made them worry. I scared them. Then acted like a douche about it by refusing to tell them what happened, only to stress them out more.

I had rudely snapped at Barry.

Barry, who had the nobility to leave me with a fresh home-cooked dinner, and had gone out of his way to restock my empty fridge, after I recklessly insulted him.

Barry cared for me - and I had been immature and selfish, and hurt his feelings.

I didn't deserve his friendship.

I got up and slumped my back against my door, filled with remorse, as anger flushed through me. At some point, I fell into a fitful sleep, uncomfortably curled up right there on my living room floor, my back against the front door.

I woke up with a headache, and sighed deeply.

Another shower.

Another shower, and I would feel better, and I'd also lose the rest of this cigarette-scented stink.

Maybe it'd clear out my airways, too.

I returned to my haven in the bathroom in my bedroom, and took another shower - this one warm and comforting.

And short, in stark contrast to the earlier one which had lasted an hour or so, scrubbing out the smokey rancor.

I turned off the water and emerged and redressed, and curled up in my bed, when I was startled by the sound of... was it knocking I heard?

I jumped and walked to my bedroom door. Thankfully, the knocks are coming from the front door.

 _Knock knock knock!_

Who on earth could it be?

It had to be past 11 pm...

When did Caitlin and Cisco leave? 11:30ish? 11:45? 12, even?

One last _knock_ was heard, this one sounding slow and unsure, as if the person on the other side doubted I was inside.

Forgetting how stupid it would be to open the door in the middle of the night, after getting kidnapped, I scrambled to my feet and ran into my living room, and opened the door.

"Hey," I greeted quietly, adrenaline shooting from surprise at the sight of my unexpected guest.

"Uhh... hey," Barry responded, before looking down at the floor, awkwardly biting his lip.

"Barry, it's past midnight," I stated in quiet astonishment, though I was glad to see him, "What are you doing here?"

"I couldn't sleep," he claimed solemnly, "I need to apologize to you."

"Umm... now?"

"Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking," he muttered sheepishly, "But the guilt was just keeping me awake."

"Lucky for you you're not the only one drowning in self-reproach," I murmured, "I'm the one who needs to apologize, not you. I was being childish."

"Mind if we argue who's really at fault inside?" Barry asked, giving me a small smile as he stepped forward.

"By all means," I responded, returning the tiny smile as I stepped out of the way for him, "Though I should warn you - I was captain of the debate team back in high school."

"Of course," Barry conceded, "Although you should know forensics have quite the skill at arguing their cases as well. We know our stuff."

I closed the door and followed him to my couch, sitting beside him, resting my head against the back as I looked to him. He reached over and turned on the lamp on the side table, and a small burst of gold light shone through the room and washed over his silhouette, revealing a stressed Barry Allen.

"You know," I began awkwardly, looking down at my hands, "I wanted to thank you for bringing me dinner. And getting me groceries. It really was very kind of you."

Barry looked over at me, and gave me the smallest hint of a smile.

"You didn't need to do that, especially after I said those th-"

Before I knew it, a finger had gently pinned my lips shut. Barry leaned in toward me.

"After you spoke your mind?" He asked.

I scowled at him, and pushed his hand away from my face.

"The food was nothing. Trust me. You gave me quite the reality check earlier, about how I've been acting."

"I'm sorry," I retorted, "Were _you_ the one who disappeared without notice for half the day at the hands of a ghostly metahuman, then acted like a brat about it?"

Barry raised an eyebrow.

"No... That was someone else," he murmured with a knowing smile, " _I_ was the one who said things to you I shouldn't have..."

"Like telling me I smell like a dead rat?" I teased. Barry grimaced. I smiled and hit his shoulder.

"Hey - it's fine. I kind of did spend five hours with a guy who reeks of foul smoke, so, like, I understand," I joked, before muttering under my breath, "Even if comparing me to a dead rat did kind of kill me on the inside..."

"I heard that."

"Congratulations."

Barry smiled at me, and leaned in, gently brushing my wet hair away from the side of my face.

"I've been thinking..."

"Go on."

"My secrets aren't helping either of us."

"And?"

"And they're getting in the way of an otherwise honest liaison between the two of us."

"And?"

Barry sighed.

"And to be frank? I wouldn't... really mind taking Iris and Eddie out to dinner," Barry murmured, watching me for a reaction. I was at a loss for words, and struggled to speak my mind.

"So you're saying you -"

"Wouldn't mind losing the bet."

My idiot brain finally processed his hints, and my little heart flittered, skipping a beat.

I too leaned forward, towards Barry. He watched me patiently. Nerves jolting with a strange energy, I smiled and hung an arm over his shoulder.

"So... you'll tell me your little secrets? The ones about the Flash?"

Barry's smile softened, and he sighed, before looking at me funny.

"Are you wheezing?" He questioned, leaning in closer to listen to me breathe.

"No," I lied. The wheezes were _that_ audible?

"Come on - let's go for a tiny walk," he said, pulling me up to my feet and opening the front door, before closing it behind us. I watched in shock as Barry smiled, and led me outside the apartment building in the dark night.

"I'm going to give myself a deadline of two weeks to tell you. And - I had something to give you tomorrow, actually," Barry explained, "If I don't tell you by then, then I'll stop with the advances all together."

"You're just going to _give_ up?"

Barry sighed.

"I'm sorry - but the way things are constructed -"

"Let me guess - I'm going to get hurt, attacked, an arm amputated, killed or worse - get kicked out of STAR Labs?"

Barry gave me a guilty smile. I sighed and continued walking.

"To be honest, I really want to know _why_ I'm supposed to be in so much danger here, and why I can't know anything about it but you, Cisco and Caitlin _can_. You told me the Flash wasn't a threat. Is he?"

"No. He's not."

"Then why can't I know about him?" I asked quietly, "And how does this _supposed_ legend, who _I_ still believe might be a murderer, happen to keep _us_ star-crossed lovers apart?"

Barry smiled as he crossed his arms, and continued walking.

"You make life very interesting, you know that?"

"Two weeks, Allen. I want the truth. Everyone's keeping things hidden from me, and its eating me alive. I hate it."

Barry sighed.

"I know. I know, and I want to change that, but I just can't figure out how."

"And now you're here with me at 2 in the morning, both of us confused out of our minds, and now I'm walking around Cloverleaf barefoot, in my pajamas."

Barry widened his eyes as he looked down.

"Oh - god!" he exclaimed, "Sorry! Sorry - I should've thought of that."

I smiled back at him expectantly, and he led me back to my apartment.

"You want something to eat?" I asked, once we were back inside, "Late night sna-"

"Don't ask me if I want something to eat. You always feed us," he affirmed.

"Guilty."

"So, Artemis..."

"Yeah?"

"Tell me something."

"What's up?"

"Can't ignore the elephant in the room," he joked, before turning serious, "What happened out there today?"

My smile melted.

"You keep your secrets about the Flash," I affirmed, "I keep mine about Smoke Ghost. It seems like a fair deal."

"Artemis, no. This isn't funny," Barry cautioned, "Thompson's _killed_ people before."

"And the entire city worships a metahuman _I_ believe is involved in a murder. They're both murderers, by that account," I challenged.

Barry scoffed.

"The Flash is not a murderer. He's never killed anyone, and he never will."

"I hold the same to be true with Andrew Thompson, then."

He fell silent.

"Enough of this," I declared, "Sorry for being so... pretentious... but that's what I believe. Andrew _is_ innocent, and I _will_ bring him justice."

"You don't need to apologize for being pretentious," Barry started.

"And I'm sorry for being irritating and impertinent too, and I'm especially sorry for being a snob and telling you to fuc-"

In a single, easy step, Barry strode forward and covered my mouth with his hand.

"For the last time, it's okay. And I never meant to yell at you," he allowed, genuinely feeling guilty, "I'm sorry. It really was unlike me- I just - I was unbelievably worried, and scared. We spent all day looking for you, and the Flash had searched every inch of the city, and nobody knew where you could have gone."

"I- I know," I answered in a low tone, "I actually _saw_ the Flash looking for me, today."

"You saw him?"

"Yeah. Several times, actually."

"So you _were_ in Central City," Barry realized, "Where? Tell me."

"I can't," I held, "He's going to hurt Thompson, and Thompson's scared of him."

"Artemis -"

"Barry, you have to understand," I pleaded quietly, "I know what I'm doing. I _can't_ tell anyone where I was. Thompson's not here to hurt anyone - he's just scared. And he's promised to comply. I trust him."

"Artemis, if anything happens to-"

"If anything happens to me, I'm handing him right over to the police. End of story. I've given him an ample amount of warnings," I conceded with a smile.

Barry studied my face, trying to gauge whether or not I was lying.

"At this point, he's more afraid of me than I am of _him_ ," I joked, though I was certain Thompson would never hurt me, even though he terrified me.

Barry exhaled and held his arms open, inviting me into a hug.

I stepped into his embrace, and hugged him, folding my arms between us, my hands at his shoulders.

"If anything does happen, though," he stated, "Promise you'll call _me_ , not the police."

"Call _you_?" I asked, looking up at him in confusion, "Why?"

"Let's just say it's easier for a CSI guy to get to a scene by himself than it is for a hoard of cops to gather together in a car, and whatnot."

"You don't carry any weapons, though," I retorted, confused, "No offense, but what good are you in any danger? Last time, with that SilverShock guy, you just vanished and scared the living daylights out of m-"

Barry put his finger to my lips again, and bowed his head down, softly kissing my cheekbone. He pulled away, and looked to me.

"No 'buts'. You _will_ contact me if anything happens."

"Alright?" I conceded, though I was still confused - and now I could feel my face flushing pale with surprise.

"I don't care what it is - metahuman attack, armed robbery, neighborhood kids playing pranks on you. Call _me_ , not the police."

I frowned at him...

Nothing about Barry was making sense...

"For the record," I reminded,"If nothing happens in two weeks, I'm out, You give me answers and tell me everything you know about the Flash, or I'm giving you the cold shoulder."

"Mhmm," Barry replied, smiling down at me.

"I'm serious!" I protested, "I am brutal when it comes to shunning people I don't like."

"Of course," he allowed, relaxing his posture as he slipped his arms down to my waist, pulling me in closer.

"Barry Allen, do _not_ underestimate me," I warned, though I was smiling, at ease with him. He cupped my neck with his hand, and pulled me towards him.

"Just stop talking for a second," he murmured, placing his arm under my shoulder blades, hugging me against his tall frame. I sighed and buried my head in the crook of his shoulder, fear easily melting away from my insides, being replaced with a newfound worry.

For starters, who was the Flash, and why did he have such an impact on Barry and I being together?

Why did Dr. Wells believe I couldn't know about him, that we were in danger of each other?

And why did Barry trust him, even though I had proof the Flash was there when my mother was killed?

Why on earth did the Flash want me dead?

Why did everyone trust him?

Why did the city show him so much favoritism, and shun Thompson - who was just a harmless kid?

Why was nobody ready to hear Thompson's story? Why was the entire city turned against him?

How on earth did I manage to get caught up in this mess?

Something bit away at me. I had been involved in this _mess_ since long before I was born.

My parents with their work, the death threats they had been receiving long before I had been born, the speedsters killing them, me moving to the city where the red speedster from that night was...

Fate hated me. And it hated my family.

My voice cracked in my throat, and I suddenly fought to keep the hot sensation down, needily pressing my forehead against Barry.

 _I would not cry... I would not cry... I would not cry..._

Barry pulled away and held me at arm's length.

"What's wrong?" He asked gently.

I shook my head no, before looking away. Anywhere - the wall, the floor, the countertop tiles, the picture frame of my parents...

Anywhere but at him - one of the main sources of my confusion - the man I liked, the man who kept crucial secrets from me, the man who offered me his protection.

"Hey," he murmured, delicately putting a hand to my cheek, "It'll be fine. Nothing's going to happen to you."

"I know," I assured, my voice turning shaky.

 _Get it together, Artemis._

"I'm just... a little overwhelmed, that's all."

Too late. A tear escaped, pressing out of my eye, but I quickly fought it away with the side of my hand, refusing to show weakness. I tried to smile, hoping Barry would buy it.

He studied me, before pulling me in again and dropping a soft, comforting kiss on my forehead, and tucking my head under his chin protectively.

I closed my eyes, and grabbed the fabric of his shirt at his sides, feeling horrible as I broke down in Barry's arms, weeping like an idiot.

Weeping out of confusion.

Weeping out of fear.

Weeping because I had been weak, and a metahuman had easily abducted me. A metahuman who didn't mean to hurt me, but nonetheless, I worried how easily one who did want to hurt me _could_ \- the Flash, or the yellow Flash...

Weeping because I wished things would make sense, and because I wanted peace.

I wiped my tears away, and looked up at Barry.

"Barry?" I murmured, "I need you to tell the Flash something."

"What is it?" he whispered urgently, his hand holding the back of my head.

"Tell him Andrew Thompson is not a threat. The boy is terrified of him. Tell the Flash to stay _away_ from Thompson, and if the two ever do come across each other, then tell the Flash not to hurt him. He's just a boy."

Barry thought for a second, and slowly nodded.

"Okay. But if you want me to tell the Flash that, then you need to know the same is true for him. He is _not_ a danger to this city."

I paused, and looked into Barry's green eyes, unable to read the emotion they were conveying.

"Fine. Innocent until proven guilty, then," I conceded stubbornly, "But I _still_ don't believe he's a good guy."

Barry sighed deeply, and closed his eyes, as if my words were hurting him.

"It's better than nothing, I suppose," he murmured, though I didn't understand what he meant. He took my hand in his own, and we walked out of my kitchen. I slipped my feet into some shoes, and we left my apartment, walking in the silence of the night to the gate, hand in hand.

"Alright, you should go back now. I parked the car across the street," Barry murmured, and we gave each other one last slow, lingering hug, before I looked up at him, pulling away half-way, and sighed.

"One last thing, Bear?"

"Mmm?"

"Tell the speeding bastard he can't stay away from me forever. I'm _going_ to find out who he is, and I'm going to figure out what happened the night our mothers died, and why he was there. I'm going to show the city he can't be trusted."

* * *

 **Please leave a review! :3**

 **Chapter 13 is on its way! :)**


	13. You Should Have Let Her Fall

**[Dr. Wells's POV]**

One peculiarity about humans in this era that I could never seem to fully grasp, never fully comprehend?

Your _frivolous_ schedules and routines.

In this century, and in the ones predating my own, time was measured _analogously -_ like prehistoric fools, with ridiculous tools such as watches, clocks, _calendars_ , even.

It's quite entertaining and rather pitiful, really - watching humans believe they can actually assign events and tasks to certain times and days of their lives.

Teeth will be brushed in the morning and at night.

Weekends are generally designated for relaxation and adventuring.

Unexpected, unscheduled occurrences are referred to as 'surprises'.

It's absurd, really - how you 21st century humans believe allotting certain events to certain moments will make your lives more manageable.

As if it's that simple to control your lives...

As if time _actually_ works that way...

###

"Good morning, Gideon," I greeted, though the artificial intelligence system did not require a spoken greeting to be activated.

"Good morning, Dr. Wells," a computerized female voice replied, a blue-ish white hologram of a featureless woman appearing at the base control system as I entered the secret room on the top floor of the Lab, hidden in the upper floor hallway - a room Cisco would refer to in the future as the Time Vault.

"Show me the monitoring cams. Footage from last night, if you may," I requested calmly, stepping out of my wheelchair, sighing contentedly as I stood up.

At Gideon's command, holographic images played themselves against the braille imprinted wall.

A metahuman had decided to attack last night - a wily young woman in her 20's, who thought breaching the security system at Central City Golden Bank at one in the morning was a bright idea.

Luckily, Cisco, Caitlin, Barry and I convened on time, and Barry stopped her easily, and she was now locked up in the Pipeline.

Barry had been unnervingly distraught during the entire time, though, and while the metahuman definitely was no a challenge for him, his mind had been elsewhere.

It had to have been distracted by the girl - Artemis.

The two were growing awfully close and were becoming rather fond of each other, and Barry had been on the verge of a nervous breakdown when he wasn't able to find her yesterday.

I watched the security footage - cameras in every room of each of their homes, cameras hidden at the CCPD, within STAR Labs, at Jitters, and other areas where the Flash frequented.

After securing the bank from the attack, Barry dropped Cisco and Caitlin back at their homes. I waited and watched the screens - anticipating his return to his own home. I was taken aback when Barry instead appeared on the screen that showed Artemis's front door. She answered the door.

I had warned Barry time and time again that she would betray him. What on earth was he doing at her doorstep at almost 2 in the morning?

Scowling, I turned on the audio so I could hear what they said.

I listened on, and watched as the two half-flirted half-apologized to each other, my mindset growing heavy with concern as Barry promised he would tell Artemis his so-called 'secret' in two weeks.

 _No, Allen, you idiot. You're not supposed to tell her anything. Including her on 'Team Flash' or whatever you called it would disrupt the timeline - my timeline!_

This was absurd...

"Artemis is proving to be a threat to your future, sir."

"She definitely is, Gideon."

"May I suggest performing the vankleissium experiments yourself?"

"I can't - there's no vankleissium in the future. If there was, I'd have solved this issue by myself long before. I brought Artemis to STAR Labs both so I could keep an eye on her, and because, in the future, she is the _only_ one in history to have figured out how to take a metahuman's abilities away. This has to be done by her, and her alone."

A moment passed, and I continued to wonder how to take Artemis out without killing her, or changing my future.

"Sir, Cisco has arrived at the lab," Gideon calmly called out, "It appears he brings with him cups of _coffee_."

"Thank you, Gideon," I muttered, watching with an angry disappointment as Barry placed a kiss on Artemis's cheek. I paused the footage, and turned and sat down in my wheelchair, and left the Time Vault.

Something had to be done about Allen and his feelings for the girl.

As brilliant as she was, she was getting in the way of my plans.

The Flash had to _focus -_ he had to have his head in the game, in MY game _-_ not get tangled up in an affair with the scientist who was destined to bring me down.

Grabbing a box of extra flasks, test tubes, and graduated cylinders on my way to the Cortex, I greeted Cisco - my lovably clever engineering apprentice.

"Cisco," I acknowledged with a nod and a small smile, as I wheeled myself forward.

The young man smiled at me, today dressed in gray flannel, a worn-out graphic t-shirt, and jeans, with his hair falling in light curls as it fell to his neck. He lifted two of the cups off of the cardboard tray, and handed one to me.

"Morning, Dr. Wells," he returned, smiling at me warmly, "Stopped by Jitters before coming here. Thought I'd bring us all some coffee to wake us up after last night. And yesterday. I had them make it specifically the way you like it."

"Oh? White chocolate mocha?" I asked, "Light on the-"

"Light on the sugar, one pump of syrup," Cisco answered with a wink, "You seriously think I wouldn't know by now?"

I smiled at him, and rose the cup to my lips.

"What've you got there?" He asked.

"I was prepping one of the labs in the chemistry wing for Artemis," I explained, "She has a unique task I'd like for her to take on independently."

"Her experiments with the vankleissium?" Cisco asked knowingly.

"She told you?" I inquired.

"She tells me everything," Cisco stated with a bright smile, "Can I help you set up?"

She told you... everything?

"Absolutely," I responded, and we went over to one of the spare storage rooms, gathering extra necessary supplies and whatnot.

"So... Artemis tells you everything," I wondered out loud, "I take that to be a good sign of your growing friendship with her."

"Yeah, she's the best," Cisco answered happily, "She... has an interesting way of going about getting kidnapped by a raging metahuman... but yeah, she's awesome."

"That's good to hear," I replied expressionlessly, and we went over to the laboratory I had designated for Artemis's chemistry and physics experiments - Lab #12, a large room with several racks of bottles of various compounds and solutions, several fume hoods, computers and two extra tables, closets, extra whiteboards - I had spared no expense in making sure she would have everything she would need for this momentous task.

Even if I'd murder her right after she'd get me what I'd need.

"Sir?" Cisco asked.

"Yes, Cisco?"

"Do you... do you think you might be wrong about her? About not having her on Team Flash?"

I silently sighed, and turned and smiled at him, sickened with having to explain myself for every little detail.

If I wanted to get out of here alive, though, I better get set with a good lie.

"Cisco - believe me - I'm quite fond of her too. She's smart, and has a brilliant ruthlessness about her. I can see why she'd make a great fit to our operation."

Cisco nodded, and waited for me to continue.

"But understand this - Artemis believes the Flash is responsible for the death of her parents. She sees Barry as a trusted friend, but sees his alternate self as a threat, and a murderer. Imagine how she would react if she found out that _Barry_ was that threat, that murderer."

Cisco paused, realization clicking in his eyes.

"Sir - what if it's the other way around? What if instead of seeing Barry as a threat, she recognizes the Flash as an ally?" Cisco instituted, "Believe me - she's pretty close to Barry. I doubt she could ever see him as her enemy."

Pause.

"They both just want to solve their mothers' murders," he continued, "I think Artemis deserves to know that Barry isn't her enemy here."

I drew my lips taut.

"Cisco, it's more complicated than that," I conceded calmly, "You've no doubt seen how stubborn and angsty Artemis can be."

"No kidding," Cisco joked, "You should've seen her last night when she was yelling at the cops."

I smiled.

"I can't run the risk of losing Barry at the hands of a woman who believes he needs to be stopped. Cisco - you know what Artemis plans to do with the vankleissium."

"She wants to use it to strip metahumans of their metahuman genes, and make them human again."

"What if she took the Flash's speed away, out of fear for him not being who he says he is?"

"Honestly, though? That's probably the most preposterous thing I've ever heard you say."

"I would hope so, but why chance it? The Flash _stays_ a secret from her."

"I think Artemis trusts Barry more than she fears the Flash. Once he tells her, she'll know there's no way he could be the o -"

"Cisco, I understand why you're defending the girl, but I also know there are two very drastic outcomes when it comes to revealing the Flash's identity to her. Scenario A - Barry tells her he's the Flash, we convince her Barry isn't the speedster who killed her mother, because he wasn't. She believes him, and allies with him in his feats as the Flash, and together they'll stop the speedster who really did it. Everyone wins."

Except me.

"Yes, that's-"

"Scenario B - Barry tells her he's the Flash, Artemis is shocked, and feels betrayed -"

"She's going to be feel shocked and betrayed regardless - We're _lying_ to her."

"- Artemis is unconvinced Barry is not the murderer, and, knowing his secret identity, she'll expose him. She'll tell the police, the media, the CCPN. She'll stop at nothing to bring him down, and soon - Central City won't have a Flash anymore. And this isn't a risk I am willing to take. We _need_ our Flash."

Cisco fell silent, and looked down at his hands, a small scowl appearing on his face.

"Sir - I know her better than you do. She _may_ be stubborn, but she's sensible. And she wants to keep the people of this city safe. She's seen the Flash before - she _saved_ Barry from SilverShock. She doesn't want to hurt him, and there's no way Barry could ever turn her against him."

"Cisco - we will speak no more of this until we are certain about her."

"We _are_ certai-"

"Cisco," I muttered, giving him a cautioning glance, warning him not to argue with me further, "You _know_ what I'm saying is correct. The girl is a threat to him, even if she has feelings for his human persona."

Cisco gave me a small nod, and we left the lab in silence. Entering the Cortex, we saw that Caitlin and Artemis had arrived, and were smiling as they discussed something.

When Artemis saw me, she walked over to me and crouched down beside my wheelchair, and surprised me by lonvingly wrapping her arms around my own arms and my torso.

I gave her a quizzical look, unsure of how to react against the gentle, warm gesture.

'Hugs' were not in my personal dictionary.

"Sorry, sir," she murmured, still smiling shyly as she pulled away and straightened to her full height, "But I can't thank you enough for bailing me out from the police last night. I am beyond words for what you did - you really are something else, Dr. Wells."

I took a deep breath and smiled at her.

"Anything for your safety, Ms. Van Kleiss," I equivocated.

"Speaking of safety," Cisco began, as he walked over to where he had placed the cups of coffee, "Because none of us managed to get any sleep after Ms. Clarice Crawford here -" he gestured to Artemis," -was taken away by a younger version of Hannibal Lecter yesterday, I brought us coffee. So we wouldn't end up zoning out and accidentally frying our fingers off."

"Thank you, Cisco," Caitlin answered, as Cisco handed her a cup labeled with her name.

"For the record, I was not taken by Hannibal Lecter," Artemis murmured, accepting Cisco's token of concern, "But thanks for the coffee. I actually stayed awake all night."

"Trust me," Caitlin responded with a small laugh, looking over to her friend, "We can tell."

Indeed, Artemis has rather dark circles coiled deep into the skin under her eyes, as if she's had a rather fitful night.

Then again, how does one sleep well when the person they're infatuated with pays them a visit at 2 in the morning?

Artemis smiled and took a long drink of the coffee.

"Extra shots of expresso in yours, Van Kleiss," Cisco explained, "You'll need extra energy for your assigned project."

Artemis widened her bloodshot eyes and smiled brighter, looking to me for comfirmation.

"I can start my experiments today?" She exclaimed.

"Absolutely," I responded, "If you'll come right this way, I can show you the area I have set up specifically for you."

Artemis silently clapped in glee, and with Caitlin tagging at her side, followed Cisco and I to Chem Lab 12.

" _Voila_ ," Cisco murmured with a smile, as he opened the door for Artemis and Caitlin. Artemis smiled at him as she stepped inside, her expression suddenly turning into one of amazement.

"Woahhhhh," she mumbled, taking a look around the prepped room, stopping at one of the shelves that held Hazard Class C chemicals, "Dr. Wells, are you like secretly a god, or something?"

A god?

Yes, actually. Back in my own century, I was one of the greatest scientific leaders the 24th century would ever see.

In this century, however?

I rivaled God Himself.

"It's all state-of-the-art technology, best in its class," I explained, "I figured I would have to, how do the kids say it? _Step up my game_ if I was designing a lab for a brilliant young mind such as yourself."

Artemis stood there dumbfounded, before smiling again and nodding.

"Thank you, sir. Thank you so much. I promise I won't let you down."

I smiled and held my hand out to her for a handshake to seal the deal. She accepted, and after giving my hand a firm squeeze, turned away and slipped on her lapcoat and produced a pair of goggles, which she put on over her glasses, and brought out the necessary chemicals she was looking for, and began turning on equipment.

"What are you doing?" Cisco asked.

"If I want to study vankleissium, I need to _make_ it, don't I?" Artemis retorted.

"Say what?" Cisco continued, confused.

"Vankleissium - it's - wait, do you not know?" Artemis questioned, "It's a man-made transitional metal, Cisco. Man-made means, you know, I need to make it. I need to set off the catalyst reaction with the specific chemicals needed in order to bring it into existence."

"Ahh," Cisco responded, smiling guiltily, "Of course. I knew that - I totally knew that."

"Let us know if there's anything else you need. We'll be in the Cortex," I announced. The young woman smiled at us and nodded, as she slipped her hands into safety gloves.

Caitlin, Cisco and I left.

"She got her own designated lab...How come _we_ never received this kind of special treatment?" Caitlin asked in a small voice beside me as we strolled back into the Cortex - as they strolled, I corrected. I was wheeling along slowly between them.

I gave a sheepish laugh.

"Dr. Snow, your medical research labs are some of the best in the country, especially considering you're the only one working in them."

"I know," she conceded, "It just feels as if you've got something... historic... planned out for Artemis."

I gave her a queer, inquisitive look, though she was right.

"You feel as if the work you're doing _isn't_ historic?" I asked incredulously.

Barry sauntered into the Cortex from the entranceway, giving all of us a sunny smile as he saw us.

"Morning, everyone," he chirped, before eyeing the cups of coffee on one of the Cortex desks. He walked over and pouted, as he saw all of the cups were labeled with mine, Cisco's, Caitlin's, and Artemis's names, respectively, "How come I don't get any coffee?"

"Yeah, Caitlin. Your work _is_ historic," Cisco muttered sardonically, smiling at Barry, " _You_ get to work with the mighty Barry Allen himself."

The Mighty Barry Allen sulked childishly at the sight of us not having coffee for him, putting the other cups down, before taking a sip out of Caitlin's anyway, to her protests.

He chuckled an apology, and watched as Caitlin snatched her coffee from him. His smile melted when he saw me.

"A word with you, Mr. Allen?"

###

"What's this about?" Barry questioned, as he took his seat in front of my desk in my office.

"Oh, I don't know," I muttered sarcastically, "Why don't you take a guess?"

Barry grimaced and gave a tiny nod, stuffing his hands in the pockets of his jacket - a self-confessed indication of his guilt.

"It's about Artemis," Barry murmured, looking away.

"How did it go, this morning? At her apartment?" I asked, surprising the man. Barry looked up at me and blushed - wild red creeping into his face.

"How did you know?" he inquired in quiet disbelief.

"Easy," I responded.

 _I've got cameras installed in every inch of yours and Artemis's homes._

"I called you last night to talk to you. I was worried and wanted to to make sure you were alright after last night's metahuman breach," I lied, "You seemed rather distraught, even though it was no issue for you."

Barry watched me, shame clearly written across his face as I continued.

" _Then_ I recalled that you had been extremely distraught even when searching for Artemis. And Caitlin _did_ inform me you had gotten into quite the argument with her even after finding her."

"And, Barry," I concluded, "I know you. You're not the type to sit back after hurting someone's feelings without reason. All evidence suggests you went to Artemis's place after stopping the metahuman."

Barry paused, and nodded his head, my forged manipulation easily working its way into his conscience.

"It's pretty evident that you must be stressing over not being able to tell her who you really are," I continued, "but Barry, remind me again why you must not tell her."

"Because," he recited in a heavy voice, "She'll try to take me down. And she's a threat to this team."

And a threat to the future...

And a threat to me...

But yes. Coherently, she's a threat to you too...

"You understand that I have your best interests at heart by not telling her, correct?" I asked.

"Sir," Barry murmured, looking up at me with worry in his eyes, "You're right about her. She wants to expose the Flash as a fraud."

 _What?_

Okay - my deceit about Artemis betraying him was more or less made-up.

 _Cisco_ was right - Artemis would _never_ give up the opportunity to help the Flash, to help Barry, whom she cared for.

But _this?_

This worked with my plans _perfectly..._

"Excuse me?" I asked, faking calm astonishment.

"She thinks I'm one of the speedsters who killed her mother," Barry admitted, worry fleeting through his eyes, "Last night, I went to apologize to her for saying some rude things to her, and she - she promised she'd find out who the Flash was, and that she'd show everyone he was a murderer. She doesn't believe for a second that I'm a hero. She hates me."

I sat there, taking in what he said...

This was almost too good to be true.

Without any external clue about him, Artemis already despised the Flash...

If Artemis hated the Flash, she would never team up with him in the future to stop me...

I was safe...

Or as safe as I could be with one of my two sworn nemeses sitting in front of me, asking for my help.

"You always seem to have it tough with women, don't you?" I commented, "Iris is obsessed with the Flash, but doesn't you as much more than a brother."

"And now Artemis likes Barry Allen just fine, but wants to take my secret persona down," Barry remarked, "It doesn't get any more fun than this."

"What are we going to do?" Barry asked again, worry returning to his voice, "She _can't_ think that way - I need to tell her, but I don't know how."

"This is frustrating, I understand," I assured, "The best you can do at the moment is lay low. We're keeping her off of Team Flash for a reason. And Cisco is under the premonition that she cares for you more than she fears the Flash, so you have something along the lines of a safety net as Barry Allen," I assured, though I knew it wouldn't be necessary.

Barry was afraid of her too, now. He would _never_ risk telling Artemis who he was.

This was just what I needed.

A man's character was his fate, and I was a winner...

"That was all, Barry," I finally said.

"Thank you, sir," he said, "I think I know what to do now."

"It's never an issue, Barry," I replied, smiling coldly at the boy, "Whatever brings you the best in your life."

###

I got up from my wheelchair after talking with my financial advisor - the lab's bankruptcy wasn't doing me any favors - and let myself smile fully as I walked over to the wall.

Now, though, I needed to check with Gideon to see if my suspicions about Artemis were true...

I burst my body into powerful vibrations, and ran into the wall, going undetected as I phased through untouched rooms, storage closets, and entire floors, until I had arrived at my destined location - the Time Vault.

"Gideon," I called out, "Show me the future."

The blue-ish white head appeared at the main base controls of the Time Vault, and smiled as she forced the hologram to appear behind her, against the brailled wall.

" _What?!_ " I exclaimed in disbelief, as a different newspaper revealed itself to me.

Instead of the article written by Iris, titled _Flash Missing, Vanishes in Crisis_ , there was something... horrifyingly different... on the front page

 **The Central City Citizen**

 **April 25, 2024**

 _ **City Honors Heroes Through Bold Public Tribute**_

 _By Walter Lloyd_

Central City's public officials have commandeered the building of a statue in the city's Downtown Main Square, as a tribute to our loyal superheroes,

the Flash, the Hypernova, and the Jolt. After longtime debate, city officials have agreed that financing and authorizing the construction of a statue of the duo in the Downtown Square is one of the best ways we would make public our neverending thankfulness for their help, and with donations from several sponsors, the construction will begin this next weekend. Citizens agree that the statues will serve as a beacon of hope, and a reminder for how our heroes saved the city from impending doom at the hands of villains such as FireStorm, the Reverse Flash, King Shark...

"Gideon, what is this?" I asked, stepping forward, "Where's the other article? Who are these - these other heroes? How did this happen?"

 _A reminder for how our heroes saved the city from impending doom at the hands of villains such as FireStorm, the Reverse Flash. King Shark..._

 _The Reverse Flash..._

I was stopped?

This couldn't be possible.

I was supposed to go _back_ to the future, not be _killed_.

In other words, at the rate things were going, my plan failed.

"Sir, I am unsure of how this happened," Gideon responded, "Though it appears the Flash may have revealed his identity to others."

"No. No. No," I grumbled, "Show me what would happen if he didn't tell anyone. If he keeps his identity a secret - if things went the way they should."

A different newspaper article showed itself.

 **The Central City Citizen**

 **April 25, 2024**

 ** _Restoration of STAR Labs after Horrifying Explosion Goes Underway_**

 _By Cynthia McGuffin_

Francisco Ramon, former mechanical engineer and lone survivor of the devastating explosion caused by the particle accelerator being turned on again after the death of acclaimed scientist, Harrison Wells, has announced that he will begin reconstruction of the lab facilities in memory of those who have died - Bartholomew Allen, Detective Joseph West, Dr. Caitlin Snow, physicist Artemis Van Kleiss. With a heavy heart and tears in his eyes, Ramon stated last Saturday that he will...

"No!" I shouted, "I cannot die in this timeline, and neither can Barry! I need to return! Gideon, show me other possibilities, alternate timelines!"

Gideon flicked through several different newspaper articles - each one more petrifyingly horrible than the last.

Caitlin and Ronnie found each other, married and had a son, who would die by my hands. Ronnie then swore revenge and killed me in a fight...

Another newspaper healined, Artemis leaving Central City, and moving to Gotham, where she would find a job as the director of Wayne Industries' Biotech chapter, and STAR Labs would be closed for good.

In yet another alternate reality, the future mayor of the city announced a strict ban on experiments involving dark matter placing STAR Labs under close investigation, with no mention of my being alive..

Another - Iris and Barry died in a horrifying car crash...

Each newspaper described either my death or Barry's, described STAR Labs being shut down permanently...

This was not good. This was not good at all.

"Show me any references to Barry Allen, or the Flash."

A wedding planner's publication came up, and I scowled at pictures of Barry... marrying Artemis?

Artemis had ruined the timeline.

I would never go back home.

I needed to fix this, or I'd lose everything I had, and be stuck in this modern-day Stone Age forever.

"Gideon, show me the future I want to see," I demanded, and was soon comforted by the sight of Iris West-Allen's article, depicting Barry running, and described him and I having a duel in the street.

"What happened? How did this future get destroyed?" I asked.

"It appears Artemis's involvement in Team Flash will undoubtedly have unwanted side effects," Gideon said.

"How do we ensure this doesn't happen?" I questioned, worried beyond reason, "Should I kill her? Show me what happens if I kill her."

Gideon's actuarial program was designed to be as accurate and as realistic as possible. Any chance of errors was next to impossible.

I gasped at the article I saw next.

 ** _Flash Continues to Terrorize City,_**

 ** _Several Heroes Slain in Attempt to Stop Speeding Menace_**

"Guess I'm not killing her," I muttered, "But I can't have her allying with the Flash either. We both know that's not feasible."

"No, it is not," Gideon replied, as she produced yet another new image - a picture taken from the future - of an older version of Artemis, scowling in a white leather suit, hands glowing with powerful white energy, and my bloodied, mangled body at her feet.

I shuddered.

I remembered that fight all too well, even if it didn't happen yet, even if Artemis didn't have her abilities.

I was messing with the past, and I was screwing up.

A growl escaped the back of my throat - I should have been smarter than this. I shouldn't have invited Artemis to STAR Labs at all - I didn't need vankleissium as much as I needed Barry's speed.

I flicked my hand, and the photo disappeared, and was replaced with camera footage of the lab.

Cisco and Caitlin were arguing about the needed impact to stop a safe from opening given a certain frequency, and Barry listening with smiles.

Artemis soon appeared in the Cortex.

"Hey, would you happen to have radioisotope generators?" She inquired, "I need to induct electricity specifically from atomic energy in order to start the reaction, but I need a nuclear control bank to eliminate any chain reaction that could occur."

The three of them blinked at her, as if she had spoken another language.

"A nuclear battery. I need a nuclear battery."

"We knew what you meant, we just weren't sure if we had any," Cisco allowed, "We've got tritium reactors downstairs, if those will help."

Artemis hesitated, before shrugging.

"I guess I could catalyze their electron emissions? I'll see. I'll figure out a way to make it work."

Cisco and Barry led Artemis to one of the storage rooms in the basement, and Cisco showed her our collection of nuclear-powered batteries, before leaving her to find what she needed, and going back to the Cortex where he continued to fool around with Barry.

Back downstairs, Artemis scowled, as she put batteries back, and saw something on the highest shelf of the rack, well above her reach. She jumped with her arms up, to no avail. She looked around. There was nothing that could help her. Frowning with disappointment, she dared herself to put her foot on the lowest shelf, before climbing up once more, and rose up, reaching for the battery on the top shelf again.

Her eyes shown contentedly as she found her desired object, but soon fleeted with worry as the metal shelf began tipping forward, and it was all she could do to jump out of the way before the shelf came crashing down.

The loud collapse was heard upstairs through the security system in the Cortex, Caitlin, Cisco and Barry standing alert upon hearing it, and Barry zoomed back downstairs in a fit of white lightning.

 _No, you idiot! Don't run to her with your speed!_

Thankfully, Artemis was facing the other way when he arrived, or I would have blown a nerve if she saw Barry running.

"What exactly were you doing?" He demanded, as he helped her to her feet.

"I couldn't reach the ionic equilibrium facilitator. It was on the higher shelf," she protested,"It's exactly what I needed, more or less."

"You could have gotten seriously hurt -"

"How'd you get over here?"

"What?"

"How'd you get over here so fast?" Artemis asked, narrowing her eyes at Barry, "I heard you go back up to the elevator."

"I was just on my way back to say goodbye to you."

"Really now?" Artemis challenged.

"Yes. I always say goodbye before leaving for work."

"Perfect coincidence," she muttered, "I almost thought you ran here from the Cortex."

Barry smiled and shrugged at her.

"We both know that's not true."

 _Barry, you fool._

"Gideon," I grumbled, flicking the footage away, "I need to know how to save my timeline. I have to go back. This is getting out of hand."

The main base control projected a comforting sight again - the original timeline, where Barry vanishes with me as we both traveled back to the night I killed his mom.

"Sir, several actuarial scans of the future's happenings reveal that Artemis Van Kleiss is and always will be protective of Barry Allen, even upon knowing his persona as the Flash."

"Again, that's bad news," I monotoned.

"The only logical way to separate them would be to hold them accountable for each other's safety."

"How?" I asked.

"Perhaps it's time we reveal to the girl that there are... bigger, more powerful threats... to herself _and_ to the Flash."

"Yes..." I murmured, "Scaring them away from each other would also protect the future."

With that, Gideon shown a light behind me, at the display case where I kept my gold ring.

I smiled.

"One enemy to destroy them both, Gideon?"

In front of me, the article describing his disappearance didn't change, so we were safe... For now.

With that, I immediately jolted through the Time Vault and made my way back to my wheelchair in my office, and wheeled into the Cortex, catching Barry on his way out.

"Barry," I hissed, indicating for him to come closer to me. The man obeyed, and leaned closer to me.

"Don't you _ever_ risk exposing your powers to her like that again," I warned.

"But, sir, she could've -"

"You should have let her fall."

###

There was a limit to everything, I realized.

Persuading Barry through words was doing nothing.

Perhaps it was time for the Reverse Flash to make his debut, and leave a warning they could never challenge...

* * *

 **Please leave a review, and let me know what you think :P**

 **Also, do let me know if certain things don't make sense here, or if Wells' motives are unclear.**

 **I'll edit the story so its clarified.**

 **Lol thanks for reading guys xxx**

 **\- DBV**


	14. War and Time

After Dr. Wells gave me my personal assignment independent from Team Flash's, things fell into a rhythm for me, more or less.

I was allowed full access to the lab whenever Team Flash wasn't in action, and when it was, I'd simply turn off my reactions, and leave as fast as I could, and would hail a taxi to the South to meet up with Andrew, and work on helping him.

"We seriously need to work out a communication system," I huffed, after climbing the 17 sets of stairs up to his hideout, "You can fly, and I hate climbing stairs. Do the math."

I collapsed on the beat-up couch in the room.

"You okay?" Thompson asked, walking over to me, gray and black fumes vaporizing off of him with worry.

"I'm fine," I panted, needing fresh air, gesturing for him to back away. Once he had backed a safe distance away, I pulled library books on meditation and anger management out of my backpack, "Come on, I have to get you to stop smoking like so whenever I'm around first, or I'll die of suffocation before I help take your powers away."

I'd meet with Andrew a few times a week, and offer him help and company.

The metahuman kinda began growing on me, to be honest.

If you managed to breathe past his toxic fumes which could probably kill you in moments if not controlled, and weren't terrified of his deathly, ghost-like appearance, he was pretty okay.

Lonely, scared of himself, clinically depressed, could effortlessly choke me to death from fifty week away - but okay.

When Dr. Wells gave me the okay to come back to the Lab, and I'd felt I had made significant progress with helping Thompson, I'd go back to my lab space, and continue working ceaselessly for as long as I could. I wanted to make the most of my time, because I had no idea when the next metahuman would strike and I would be asked to leave again.

Barry, for some reason, began to shy away from me again, and I dismissed any concern for it altogether.

I had priorities which were more demanding than a forensics scientist who was unsure of his feelings for me - I was babysitting a lonely metahuman in my spare time, and I needed to contract a solution from the crazy element in my lab to make metahumans whole again.

"I'll take a black coffee please," I asked the barista at Jitters, one particularly strenuous afternoon.

"Two shots of expresso, as per usual?" She asked, recognizing my need for an energy boost.

"Umm," I hesitated, thinking of the days worth of synthetic transmutational work I had yet to do, "Make it three. Or four. Five. _Five -_ five shots of expresso, please."

The barista shot me a quizzical look, but obliged.

"Five shots?" A voice asked behind me. I turned and saw Barry entering Jitters, followed behind by Eddie, Iris and Joe, "Isn't that a little too much?"

"I'll be fine," I conceded, taking my drink, worried more about my work than the consequences of consuming too much caffeine.

"Hey, Artemis," Iris chirped, standing before me as Eddie and Joe went to go order, "I haven't seen you in... days."

Her voice trailed off, her eyebrows furrowing themselves together as she took in my untidy appearance - a sheer contrast from my usual neatness.

Coffee in one hand, huge notebooks stuffed with findings in the other. I was still in my lab coat and the collar of my dress shirt was disheveled, my hair was most likely a rat's nest tied back in a bun, a pen was stuck above my left ear, my glasses fogged from being cooped up in goggles for several days on end, socks mismatched due to a lack of concern for physical poise.

I made scientists look bad.

"You've been working pretty relentlessly, lately," Barry noted, frowning at me, "Is Dr. Wells not giving you a break?"

I smiled sheepishly, and walked over to a table, where I set down my coffee and cracked a notebook open. He and Iris followed and sat on either side of me.

"I've been researching the transmutational properties of the ecfranite particle, and I've been trying to derive a base sequence that will separate and rearrange the subatomic particles of any given element using high levels of radioactive particle influction and molecular dystrophic division."

Barry and Iris looked over me to each other, blinking.

"Umm... I'm an English nerd, and Barry's a science nerd, and I'm pretty sure _neither_ of us understood what you said."

Ignoring them, I flipped through my notes.

"Equilibrium has been maintained, both electrochemically _and_ A-positively," I muttered in disappointment, "I don't understand why the spectromagnetic particle influx isn't -"

Barry pulled my notebook from me and closed it, and rested his arms on it, giving me a disapproving, concerned look.

"Earth to Artemis?" Iris called on my other side, putting a hand on my shoulder, "Take a minute to breathe."

I obeyed, seeing the worry on their faces, and took a deep breath.

"Sorry guys. I'm in full-nerd mode," I relented, giving them both apologetic smiles.

Iris frowned lightly, and took my drink away from me.

"Barry - get her something lighter. All this caffeine is not doing her any good, either."

Barry left with my coffee, threw it away, and stood in line at the counter, soon replaced at the table with Eddie and Joe.

"Hi Artemis," Eddie greeted with a kind smile, sitting in front of me with his food, "Haven't seen you in forever."

"Yeah - did you forget we owe you and Barry a dinner?" Iris chirped in, with a kind laugh.

"Dinner?" I asked.

"We lost your bet," Eddie explained, "We've been trying to get a hold of you so we could take you out."

Barry returned to his seat beside me.

"Here," he announced, handing me a new cup of drink. I took it in my hands. It was icy-cold, not piping hot like the coffee I was drinking earlier... My thirst winning me over, I took a sip anyway, surprised at the drink's familiar, crisp flavor.

"Milk?" I asked in disbelief at the fresh, lightly creamy taste, turning to Barry, "You got me _milk_?"

"Hey - Caitlin told me you've been consuming nothing but energy drinks, coffee, and Big Belly Burgers. 8 ounces of milk aren't going to kill you."

"Milk," I repeated in awe, taking another drink as gears whirred to life in my brain, "Calcium... Calcium has certain types of ions that could - Barry, you're a genius!"

"What the -?" Joe asked, giving me a strange look.

I snatched my notebooks, opened them up to a page where I was trying to solve for a missing component in the element's energy levels. I pulled the pen out from above my ear and began fervently writing in an equation.

"Tricalcium phosphate! It has pyrophosphate anions! This is brilliant!" I exclaimed, "If I calibrate the negativity levels, I might be able to maintain proper spectromagnetic influx!"

I hurried to grab my things and turned to head out the door.

"I'm sorry for being so brash, guys!" I acknowledged, seeing their puzzled faces, "But I think I've just figured out something crazy!"

"But Artemis, what about the dinner?" Eddie requested, turning in his chair to see me.

"Oh - right!" I remembered, stumbling as I turned around, bumping into the doorway like a fool, "I really can't go - I'm sorry! Maybe you could just take Barry by himself."

"But this was your idea," Iris reminded, "We can't _not_ take you."

Barry threw me a worried glance.

"Artemis?" Joe called out, "If you could drop by the station sometime soon, I'd really appreciate it."

"Am I in trouble?" I asked stupidly, unsure if I had done anything wrong.

 _Oh, shoot. Did the police find out about me hiding Thompson?_

"No, I just had something to ask you," Joe explained hopefully.

"I'll be over soon. Just make sure your receptionist is well-fed," I joked, "I don't want her to kill me."

Everyone at the table gave me perplexed looks.

I smiled idiotically and shrugged as I left, bumping into the doorway again as I nearly tripped on my way out of Jitters, hailing a taxi back to the Lab.

And with that - my social life came to an end. I dedicated myself completely to my projects, and if Dr. Wells approved, would stay at STAR Labs throughout the night, working diligently, powered by nothing other than raw dedication.

Raw dedication, and energy drinks.

Days would go by, and I would only leave the Lab to grab something eat, or go home and shower, or if Wells forced me out because of the Flash.

I barely let myself rest - and Caitlin and Cisco grew increasingly worried about me.

"Artemis, you have the day off!" Caitlin argued upon seeing me back in the Cortex, "Go home! You need sleep!"

"No can do, Cait," I answered, grabbing a blood collection kit from med bay before going back to my lab, "These metas ain't gonna stop themselves."

Cue another round of relentless experimentation and meetups with Thompson, who also worried.

"Alright - again. Breathe, count to ten," I urged Andrew, who was now able to bring his smoking to almost a complete minimum.

"Artemis - we've done this nearly fifty times," he protested, putting his arms down.

"Again..." I repeated sternly, wooziness overtaking my brain as I felt myself unintentionally doze off.

He shook me awake.

"Hey - you should go back home," he pleaded, glassy gray eyes filled with worry, "You've helped me more than enough this week. I'm almost able to stop smoking altogether. We can continue later."

Eyelids almost closing in on themselves, I mumbled something senseless, and stumbled away from him, obeying him.

Home sounded pretty good, to be honest.

"Artemis?" Andrew called out worriedly.

"Hmmm?"

"You're trying to open the door with your cellphone."

"Mmm," I managed to get out, before collapsing, headache demanding its way through my head, and I dropped my phone.

"You called someone," Andrew tried to explain to me, and my vision doubled before blacking out completely due to lack of energy. The last thing I remember was something struggling to pick me up, and I felt myself being lain upon something softer - my tense muscles melting with relaxation almost instantaneously.

* * *

"Artemis?" I asked, picking up my phone. It was unlike her to call me, especially at this hour. We hadn't really had a real conversation in a few days, anyway, "What's up?"

On the other line, I heard a scuffling sound.

I waited a few moments and heard nothing...

"Maybe it's a butt dial?" Cisco asked.

I put the phone to my ear, waiting for a response.

"What's wrong?" Caitlin asked, taking her seat beside Cisco. After a long day at work, the three of us decided to recontinue our weekly Friday hangouts. This week - pizza night.

Slightly irritated, I hung up and put my phone back in my pocket.

"Have either of you managed to talk to her?" I asked, "She's been avoiding us all, lately."

"Nope," Cisco conceded, "Whenever we do, she starts rambling unintelligibly."

"I haven't really seen her outside of her lab. And she hasn't been spending too much time at home, either," Caitlin explained, with a concerned expression.

"Maybe she has other friends that she hangs out with?" Cisco proposed, taking a bite of his pizza.

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"Has she been answering phone calls or texts?" I asked, "Or been telling you where she's going? She hasn't told me anything."

"She tells Dr. Wells," Caitlin answered, "He's the only one she talks to. They discuss work - particle interactions."

I shook my head and pushed my plate away.

"Something's not right about her," I muttered, taking my phone out of my pocket and handing it to Cisco, "Trace the call."

"Now?!" He asked in astonishment.

"Yes. I want to know where she is and what she's up to," I replied firmly. Cisco gave me a worried look and wiped his hands on a tissue, before taking my phone and fiddling around with the operating system, taking his own phone out to compare the data.

The STAR Labs satellite can mark any type of emission in the city - physical or electrical, and Cisco can manage the satellite from nearly any of his devices - tablet computers, laptop, the monitors in the Cortex, and has built his own app that alerts him of metahuman signatures.

Tracing a phone call is child's play for him.

"The call came from... the South District?" He answered in disbelief, "From the slums. She's - she's at the corner of Ashbury Lane and Livermore Way."

"Why would she be there, of all places?" Caitlin asked.

"Dunno - maybe her phone got stolen?" Cisco responded, "It would explain why she doesn't answer our calls anymore."

I thanked him and took my phone back, and to their surprise, got up and left Petey's Pizza Joint.

Artemis was a physicist.

A physicist had no business in an abandoned block of slums.

I walked into an ally where nobody could see me, and burst into a super speeding run, dashing through Downtown and Lawrence Hills, until I arrived at the streets in the South.

Ashbury and Livermore. That's where she was. I located the intersection of the streets, and shot up the slum building at the corner.

Almost too easily, I found life in the highest room.

"Thompson," I whispered in surprise, at the sight of the smokey boy placing a blanket over Artemis, who was lying on an old couch.

The boy was startled when he saw me, but quickly regained composure.

"It's _you_ ," he seethed, " _You're_ the Flash. Why are you here? And how did you find me?"

I stayed silent and took notice of my surroundings. This was... an old office room, not a villainous lair.

There was nothing in this room save for a desk with a dusty, worn out chair, library books, and a defeated-looking couch, upon which Artemis was sleeping.

I was confused.

"Don't ignore me. I could sense your electric signature from miles away. I can sense every movement in the air, and none is as powerful as yours. Leave us. _Now_."

With that last word, Thompson stood up, his eyes flickering darkly as he summoned fumes about the room, ready to stand his ground.

"I'm not here to hurt you - I promise," I responded, remembering how Artemis told me Thompson feared me, "I was looking for her. Why is she here with you?"

"Why should I tell you anything?" He answered, not backing down, "You're a _menace_. You helped murder her mother."

"Look - she's wrong about that," I explained, wanting to appease the boy so he'd stop billowing light smoke around the room, "And I'm her friend. I got her call a few minutes ago, but I got worried when I couldn't hear anything on the other side. She hasn't been talking to her friends, lately."

"Artemis has the _Flash's_ number on her phone?" Thompson asked, confused, letting the fumes die down, "But - but she said she _hated_ you."

"She doesn't hate my secret identity, and she doesn't know it's me, so pipe down," I maintained, walking past the boy to the fast asleep woman cuddled on the couch. She looked so innocent, so tranquil as she dozed off, her head slightly turned to the side, "We'll both be in danger if she figures out it's me."

"Your name is _Bae_ Allen?" The ghost asked incredulously.

"No," I replied, frowning as I scooped her delicate figure up in my arms, "It's Barry."

 _Bae?_

"She has you down as Bae on her phone, though," Thompson muttered, "Interesting..."

Realization clicked in his eyes.

"Wait - are you that guy who's the reason she doesn't have a love life?"

I scowled in confusion, and looked down at the woman snoring softly in my arms.

"What...exactly...did she say about this guy?"

"He's a police scientist guy, or something,," Thompson added, raising an eyebrow, "Apparently he's 'tall, cute, dark-haired and oblivious'."

I paused on my way to the door, adjusting Artemis in my arms so she wouldn't wake up while I ran. I turned around and gave Thompson a strange look.

" _Astounding_ ," Thompson retorted in mock amazement, gauging my reaction as confirmation, "Artemis has a _crush_ on the man she's hunting down. You've - you've been under her _nose_ this entire time!."

I shot Thompson a quizzical glance.

"Be quiet," I ordered, "She can't wake up and see this."

"You know I could easily tell her it's you, right?" He snorted, "You just told me your name, and everything. I saw you run in here. You didn't even wear your suit."

"Look, I haven't killed anyone, and I'm _not_ the one from that night. I'm just as innocent as you are," I intoned harshly, surprising the young metahuman, "And - she's wrong about me, just as the city's wrong about _you_."

"So why not just tell her? Why play games with her?" Thompson asked in a small voice, his sarcasm replaced with concern, "She has nightmares about you. She told me so herself."

"My situation is just as complicated as yours, if not more," I sighed, looking down at the woman in my arms before facing the boy, "I need to know you won't tell her."

His eyes flickered with worry and understanding as he crossed his arms.

"She's doing everything she can to protect me," he announced, "I'd do the same for her in a heartbeat."

"I'm on the same boat as you," I assured, "And I'm not going to tell anyone about you working with her, or where you're hiding."

Thompson gave me a solemn look, and nodded.

"You have my promise that I won't tell her, then," he affirmed dourly, "Though - it's none of my business, I'm telling you that right now - but you should be careful around her. If she finds out who you really are, she's not going to refer to you as _Bae_ anymore."

I pressed my eyes closed, and exhaled.

"Do you know where she lives?" Thompson asked.

"Yeah. Of course I do."

"Then you better get going, Flash," the specter retorted, stepping forward and opening the door of the office for me, "She's not going to want to wake up while you're traveling."

I smiled, and before I knew it, I was zipping back into Downtown Central City, unlocking the door to Artemis's apartment. I carried her to her room, and laid her down on her bed, and she murmured in her sleep as she turned to her side, slipping her hand under her pillow. Sighing, I sat at her bedside, and brought her blanket to her shoulders, unsure of what to make of my situation.

"Artemis," I whispered, tucking a flap of hair behind her ear, out of the way of her face, "It's me. Barry. I'm the Flash, and you don't need to be afraid of me."

Thankfully, she stayed sound asleep.

"And I am going to figure out how to tell you this."

* * *

"Good morning, Artemis," Cisco greeted kindly.

"Morning, Ms. Van Kleiss," Dr. Wells acknowledged, actually smiling at me.

"Hey," I responded, making my way into the Cortex.

Caitlin and Barry followed in behind me.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, it's been more than a week and I still haven't received a review of your work," Dr. Wells stated, folding his hands under his chin.

Cisco, Caitlin and Barry gave me quizzical looks - it was unlike me not to submit my work on time.

I smiled at Dr. Wells.

"See, I was planning on giving you more of a _demonstration_ than just a typed report," I consented with a wily grin. I headed towards the elevator, and gestured for everyone to follow, "Come with me. All of you."

The group threw me confused glances, but did what I asked.

I led them to Lab 12, and handed them all safety goggles, before leading them to a shielded clear display case, marked with CAUTION - RADIOACTIVE labels. Inside was a huge clump of a shiny, garnet-colored metal. I put on a pair of thick, protective gloves before taking the metal out of the case.

"Everyone, I'd like for you to meet vankleissium - the _other_ marvel of nature my parents introduced to the world," I explained with a coy smile.

"Yeah, you're real funny," Cisco scoffed.

I smiled at him, and continued my demonstration, putting the chunk of metal in a different case - a catalyst reactor.

"On its own, vankleissium is unbelievably unreactive, but proportionally _just_ as radioactive. Direct exposure to its radiation can burn the skin and disrupt the body systems. Prolonged exposure will lead to painful cancers and death."

"You called it a marvel of nature?" Barry asked in disbelief.

"Now - watch what happens when I force it to decay," I stated, pushing in the right sequence in the control panel of the catalyst reactor, "The half-life of vankleissium is forty years - meaning I'd have to wait that long in order for it to not be radioactive. I, however, have derived a reaction formula using oxyacids that will tampers the radiation - forcing the vankleissium to decay in a matter of seconds."

I pushed the last button of the sequence into the catalyst reactor, and inside, the vankleissium began to decompose quickly, changing from dark copper into a brighter, white-ish metal that would be softer. After the reaction was complete, I slipped my gloves off and took the metal out with my bare hands.

"Just as uranium decays into lead, vankleissium decays into this stuff," I announced, throwing the silvery chunk at Barry, who caught it with a yelp, "My father called it the ecfranite particle - after _ecfranatus_ , the Latin word for uncontrollable."

"What's so special about it?" Caitlin asked, Barry passing the strange stone to her.

"Excellent question, Dr. Snow. Would either of you happen to have valuables on you?" I asked innocently.

"Why?" Cisco asked.

"I'd have to show you to answer your question," I answered, "Alright - everyone, just give me something. Anything. I'm not going to destroy your stuff, and you'll get it back in one piece. I just want to show you what ecfranite can do."

Dr. Wells pulled the goggles off, and handed me his glasses. Cisco gave me his STAR Labs ID tag. Barry took off his wristwatch, and Caitlin slipped her gold chain off of her neck, and placed it in my palm.

I walked over with their things, and placed them in yet another glass case - the influx chamber, which was actually two scientifically-specialized glass cases put together, each with its own function - one to induce a rather unique reaction to the ecfranite, one to induce it upon my friends' items.

"Just to show you all it's fair game, I'm going to put something of mine in there too," I remarked, tossing my phone into the mix. I gestured for Barry to throw me back the ecfranite, and I threw it into the other case, separated from the first by an anti-conductive wall of metal.

I closed the influx chamber, and hit the "Transmutate" button, after typing in my security code.

"What's so special about it, you ask? Well, my fellow scientists, ecfranite is a Type 2 transitional metal - allowing it to form both anions and cations during reactions, making it all the more reactive. Combined with the strength of the metal's nuclear forces, the ecfranite particle can copy and imitate any other material - be they gases, liquids or solids."

I signaled for everyone to come closer, and they gathered around me and the influx chamber. In the case which had the ecfranite sample within it, the ecfranite began to burst into powerful sparks until it was nothing more than a floating ball of white energy, still crackling with unstable sparks of raw, nuclear power.

Everyone gasping at the phenomenon before me, I pulled down a level on the influx chambers, letting the wall separating the two cases pull up, and the ball of energy attacked our items in the next case, igniting more energy within the items in blinding flashes of white, blue and silver, until the reaction died down to a complete stop, and I opened the second case - pulling out _two_ gold necklaces, _two_ cell phones, _two_ wristwatches, _two_ Francisco Dela Torre Ramon ID tags, and _two_ pairs of Dr. Wells' hipster-chic glasses.

I held the items out and gave them back to their respective owners.

"Am - am I seeing double?" Cisco inquired in astonishment, as I handed him back two ID tags.

"Nope! I manipulated the ecfranite's chemical structure to imitate those of your belongings!" I exclaimed excitedly.

Dr. Wells smiled at me, as he put his new set of spare glasses in his sweater's chest pocket, Barry turned his new watch around to compare it to his first, and Caitlin stood there, her mouth agape as she held two valuable gold chains in her hand.

"Explain how you did this to me," she finally managed, after a moment of sheer disbelief, "Again."

* * *

Artemis led Caitlin and Dr. Wells over to one of her computers, where she smiled as she talked them through various diagrams - depicting influx reaction curves, the atomic structural changes, action potential, other science gibberish.

Dr. Wells and Caitlin listened intently, with keen smiles.

"So this is what she's been up to," I mused to Barry, who was still comparing his two watches, "At least now I have an extra key tag in case I lose the first."

Barry finally looked up at me in shock.

"Cisco - they're exactly the same," he gushed in shock, finally slipping one watch back over his wrist and pocketing the other, "This is insane, even for the _Flash's_ standards."

"No kidding, bro," I remarked, picking up both of her cell phones which she left on the counter, "She turned a hazardous man-made metal into a working cell phone with the flip of a switch."

I helped myself to a full-analysis of the two phones. Both had identical operating systems. Both had battery compartments, with lithium-ion batteries encased inside. I pressed the home button on both the phones, and Barry watched as Artemis's home screens pulled up - the backgrounds of both phones being selfies of her and myself (Barry may be the fastest man in the streets, but in terms of his love life? Not so... Heh...) - with several missed call notifications appearing.

"Wow - they have identical storage memories, too?" Barry asked, beside me.

"12 missed calls from _Bae_ Allen?" I asked in a voice that was something between a snort and a laugh, looking back at Barry with an incredulously entertained look in my eyes.

"Shut up," Barry muttered, pulling his phone out and dialing Artemis's number. Instantly, the incoming call appeared on both of the cell phones, both phones playing ringtones.

"Woahhhhh," I vaunted, " _Artemis_ \- the satellite signal goes to both of these phones. That's seriously pretty awesome - this is a level 10 mindf*ck."

Artemis turned around and smiled at me. She walked back over to me and put her arm over my shoulder.

"That is nothing," she answered, "I've been studying the ecfranite particle for years on my own now. Wanna see something else that'll blow you away?"

"Yeah," Barry and I responded excitedly, in unison. We watched in awe, our eyes fixed on Artemis's every movement, as she produced a mind-blowing... plastic cup of water?

She brought it back to us.

"So, what do you guys know about alchemy?" She asked, holding the cup of water with both hands.

"It's a myth from medieval times," Barry answered.

"Scientists in the ancient times used to believe they could somehow turn water into gold, or use it to create a universal medicinal elixir," Caitlin explained, her and Dr. Wells returning to where we were, curious about what Ms. Van Kleiss was up to now.

"It doesn't exist," Dr. Wells concluded firmly, confused.

Artemis winked at him behind her goggles and glasses, and placed the cup of water inside the influx chamber, and added a sample of ecfranite in the other. She turned on the transmutational reaction, typing in a specific program into the control panel, and we watched as the white metal burst into nuclear energy, before shooting itself at the water in flashes of bright colors.

When the reaction was over, there was a huge gold nugget the size of a softball where the cup of water had been originally.

My eyes were ready to pop out of their sockets.

Barry had a similarly bewildered look on his own face.

"To be honest, it's really just simple multi-material physics," Artemis conceded, "You just need to tinker around with the chemical structures of your given atoms. After several days of nonstop research, I figured out how it works."

"Care to show us?" Dr. Wells asked.

"Absolutely," Artemis replied, taking the fat block of gold out of the chamber and handing it to me, "I've heard you've been having car troubles. Sell this, and just get yourself a new car. Now, Dr. Wells, if you'll follow me..."

I gasped at the heavy lump of lustrous yellow metal in my hands, and pressed it, letting the shape mold under the pressure of my hand.

"She turned water into gold," I murmured, handing it to Barry, who was intently watching me play with the gold, "I think I'm going to cry."

Artemis had now led Caitlin and Dr. Wells to another section of her lab, where there were two or three clear white boards standing against a back wall, each covered from top to bottom in several chemical and physics equations, formulas and work, written in neatly-formed white ink.

Dr. Wells and Caitlin listened with smiles and nodded their heads as Artemis explained the laws of transmutation and inter-energy spectrum exchanges, and how the ecfranite particle could be used in almost any application - technical, medical, environmental, you name it. She confessed that she wasn't sure if it could be tested on humans and animals, though.

"She is... unbelievable," Barry sighed next to me, crossing his arms as he wistfully watched Artemis from afar.

I turned my head and looked to Artemis again - and it really wasn't that hard to understand what Barry saw in her.

A scientific prodigy for someone her age, with an artistic boldness about her fine, lithe appearance. A brave and curious mind, with a powerful eagerness, and a sharp intelligence that could silence anyone - even Dr. Wells.

To make matters worse, she wasn't that bad on the eyes, to understate it...

"You know, if you're really going to drag things out with her," I teased, "I might as well go ahead and make my move."

Annoyance flickered through Barry's eyes, and he faced me with a disbelieving look.

" _Excuse_ you?"

"She's not going to wait for you forever," I remarked, crossing my arms, "I mean, for the fastest man alive, you're going pretty slow."

"What do you want me to do?!" Barry hissed in annoyane, "She wants my secret identity _dead_."

"Sure, _sure_ ," I answered back with a perky grin, "All I'm saying is - if she wants someone to help her with her ... _chemistry_... I'm more than happy to oblige. We are lab mates, after all."

I enjoyed the incredulity on Barry's face. We had a strict bro code which promised neither of us would go after each other's love interests, and I just threatened to break it, and in doing so, I got right under his skin.

"Cisco, you can't do that," Barry shot back, uncrossing his arms in defeat, pointing a finger at my chest, "I called _dibs_."

"Gentlemen?" Dr. Wells called, startling us out of our little debate. He faced us with a worried smile, "Take it from a man with a longer history with women than you both. When arguing over who gets 'the girl', try not to do it in front of ' _the_ girl'."

Artemis had paused in the middle of writing out an equation, and was giving us an expectant, blank look. Caitlin, on the other hand, sighed with clear irritation, one hand at her hip.

Artemis cleared her throat, and Dr. Wells turned his attention back to her.

"So, as I was saying, sir," she started, eyeing Barry and I cautiously before she started writing again, "Once I was given the values of the light-sensitive models from my spectrophotometer, I was able to derive how much quantum energy I would need to transmutate the ecfranite into any given material, given that material's electronegativity levels."

"Amazing," Caitlin responded, "So, how were you certain that ecfranite doesn't have any of the toxic properties that vankleissium did? How did you break apart the nuclear forces within the bonds?"

"And the magnetic forces between the subatomic particles?" Dr. Wells asked.

Artemis smiled at them both, and turned around, quickly writing out a long chemical equation I hadn't seen before, explaining in great detail how she got her work. I was amazed at how easily she deflected any answers the four of us had, and how poised she was.

"Need I explain more?" She asked rhetorically, capping the marker.

Indeed - what was left to ask?

Dr. Wells smiled coldly at her, before taking his glasses off, and scowling.

"You realize that this is nothing impressive, right?" He asked.

Fear flickered through Artemis's eyes, and she faced him, humiliated.

"What?" She asked in a small, mortified voice.

"This isn't what I had thought you would show me," he described in a contrite voice, "Everything you've just done - has been done before. You have done nothing but recreate your parents' work."

"I - Dr. Wells, it took my parents _years_ to do what I just did in a few days -"

"And you have had the advantage of today's technological advancements. They did not," Dr. Wells answered, his smile forced, "Have you figured out how to use ecfranite to strip metahumans of their abilities?"

"Sir, I..." Artemis mumbled, shock in her own eyes as she looked away, disappointment washing through her.

"No. You have not," Dr. Wells affirmed dejectedly, "You've done nothing but use this lab's _limited_ financial resources to play with ecfranite particles."

"I had to start the base reactions regardless," Artemis answered, "And it takes time to make sure everything meets safety standards, and I built the catalyst reactors and influx chambers myself, and sir, I -"

"This wasn't what I had wanted," Dr. Wells interrupted, "I had higher expectations for you, and I'd lie if I said I wasn't disappointed in you."

He put his glasses back on, and used the joystick on his wheelchair to drive himself towards the doorway, leaving all of us astounded, and Artemis heartbroken.

I took the misshapen bar of gold out of my pocket.

It was gold, heavy, and malleable, just as gold should be.

Artemis made gold out of water - she recreated Barry's fancy, intricate watch _perfectly_ out of a hazardous metal she had cooked up _herself_.

I was about to intervene, and stand up for Artemis, when she spoke out, surprising us all.

"You know, Dr. Wells," she called out accusingly, the great scientist stopping in his tracks, "I might have been more efficient with my work if you weren't kicking me out for entire _days_ at a time."

Dr. Wells turned his wheelchair around.

Artemis straightened herself, and crossed her arms, her posture strong, forceful and intimidating.

"And I'm not exactly working under _ideal_ circumstances," she continued, "Yes, I'm dedicated to my project, but I don't have the _luxury_ of working with the same comfort you guys are."

She pointed at the piles of empty energy drink cans huddled on a counter.

"I'm having to give up my sleep schedule for this, and I'm compensating for that in unhealthy ways, and I'm working round the clock. Personally, it's not doing me any favors. On top of that, you insist on having me take my days off, as well as expel me when the Flash comes around. How can you expect me to work competently if you've turned my own workplace against me?"

 _Artemis, you weren't supposed to tell Dr. Wells you know about the Flash..._

Dr. Wells scoffed.

"You told me you wouldn't complain about this."

"And I'm not. I haven't complained once since we made our agreement for me to work independently," she replied, her voice small, "But I'm just saying - I need more time if you want me to do the work that I want. Also, getting some rest wouldn't hurt, either. I'd like to be able to work under the apt conditions."

Dr. Wells gave Artemis a solemn nod.

"Then maybe I was wrong about you - about your perseverance and your adaptability," he replied sourly, "Maybe you're not the right person for the job."

With that, he turned and left, and Artemis's eyes widened in disbelief, before she sat down in a chair, and looked down, glaring at the desktop, horrified with herself.

Beside me, Barry sighed deeply, and sat in front of her.

"Well, I officially hate my job," she muttered.

Caitlin walked over and sat down beside her, and I sat on her other side.

"For the record, he's very wrong," Caitlin said, holding Artemis's hand in her own, "I thought your knowledge of transmutation was tremendously monumental."

"No kidding," Barry agreed, taking his second watch out of his pocket, "I'm more than certain even the Flash would be jealous of what you can do."

Artemis gave a tiny snicker in response to his words, before sighing and getting back up, and walking over to one of her computers. Barry went with her.

"It's the Flash's fault I can't stay here during normal working hours," she responded, not looking up. Behind her, Barry frowned in guilt.

"I think I'm going to rerun some of these tests of the ecfranite's action potential," she murmured, grabbing a pen and writing something.

"And afterwards," Barry suggested, sliding into the chair next to her, "Maybe you and I could potentially get some action?"

Artemis cringed and dropped her pen, and stared at him in shock.

"Lunch! _Lunch_ \- I meant to say lunch, not action," Barry announced, blushing brightly as he flustered to get up, away from Artemis's confusion, "I was just wondering if you'd want to get lunch with me later today."

Artemis finally broke into a smile, and she shook her head with a heavy sigh.

"I'm sorry, Barry," she allowed in a dry voice, "Dr. Wells is right. I didn't give him what he wanted. I have to keep working, or I'm going to lose my job if Dr. Wells keeps thinking I'm not able to do my work properly."

"Artemis," Caitlin intoned in a concerned voice, as she got up, "Go get some lunch today. You have no reason _not_ to focus on yourself just because of Wells."

"Yeah," I added, "I mean, being an alchemist _is_ pretty badass, but you can't stay in here forever."

Barry smiled at Artemis, and held his fist out to her.

"Do you like sushi?"

"I am crazy for sushi," she responded quietly, touching her own fist to his, a guilty smile appearing on her lips.

"I'll see you at noon, then," Barry conceded, turning away to leave, grinning like a little boy in a candy store as he walked away.

"Can I come?" I asked, "I love sushi."

Barry raised an eyebrow at me as he gave me a tiny smile.

"No. You can stay here and help her with her chemistry. You are her lab mate, after all. Let's leave your relationship strictly professional, shall we?"

With that, he left, leaving Caitlin and I alone with an Artemis who seemed to get into her work zone already.

"You know," Caitlin murmured, raising an eyebrow at me, "It really would be unfortunate if... I somehow left the Flash's full biological files completely unattended in med bay, and if you happened to stop by, looking for some metahuman data for your project."

I looked at her in disbelief.

"Caitlin, the Flash's biological data - that's got his name and everythi-"

Caitlin raised an eyebrow at me, and I quickly caught on, my worry replaced with surety.

I smiled as I replied in a hushed voice, barely loud enough for Artemis to hear.

"And it really would be stupid and irresponsible of me if I _somehow_ left all of our security footage - from when Artemis can't be at the Lab - open on the computers in the Cortex. Then she would know exactly what goes on when she's not here."

Artemis looked over at us, before looking back at her computers, a warm smile on her lips.

"And if you left the password, like, written on a post-it note nearby or something, and if Artemis got ahold of it when we weren't there."

"Then poor Dr. Wells would have no choice but to let Artemis work alongside us."

 _Both of those are absolutely preposterous and careless ideas_ , Dr. Wells's voice intoned over the PA system in the Lab, _If either of you get any more 'ideas' like that, you'll be saying goodbye to Ms. Van Kleiss for good._

Over at her desk, Artemis scowled, her eyes watering in fear at Dr. Wells's threat, and my heart broke at the sight.

Why was Dr. Wells making things so hard for her?

Caitlin frowned too, looking just as sad as Artemis did.

 _May I have a word with you both in my office?_ Wells asked over the intercom, and Caitlin gruffed as she left Lab 12, and I followed right after her, giving Artemis an apologetic look before I left.

###

Caitlin and I, after having received a very ...persuasive... warning from Dr. Wells, continued our work, while Artemis tinkered away in isolation in her lab. A few minutes before noon, though, she arrived and joined us at the main desks in the Cortex.

"Hey guys," she murmured, quickly hugging me from the side, "Thanks for trying to stand up for me back there."

"No problem," Caitlin sighed, as she continued working, before breaking into a smile as Artemis enveloped her in a sisterly embrace.

Artemis unbuttoned and stepped out of her lab coat, revealing a worn-out Star Wars shirt and knee-length black skirt. She scowled and sat back down, folding her lab coat and placing it on the table. She paused for a moment, and froze, deep in thought.

"What is it?" I asked her.

She gave me a devious smile and walked up... to the back wall of the Cortex, right up to the blue display case that kept the Flash suits.

"You know, I never figured out what's in here," she said, placing her hand between the doors, trying to pull them open.

Caitlin immediately typed in the program, and with a _beep beep!_ the display case was locked from the inside.

Artemis figured out what Caitlin just did, and turned around, giving her an accusatory glare.

"Why'd you do that?" She asked in a tired voice.

"Dr. Wells..." Caitlin conceded, nervous.

"Oh, I get it," Artemis murmured faintly, "Team Flash stuff?"

Caitlin and I nodded.

"You know, I actually figured out who the Flash is," Artemis said, with a wry smile.

"Oh no. Not again," I murmured, "Artemis, we can explain -"

Artemis smiled and began counting on her fingers.

"Well, for starters, I'm more than certain the Flash lives in Central City. I've been doing some research, and I haven't really found reports about him being in other cities or surrounding areas - Coast City, Keystone, Evermount, Fremont - so I'm more than certain he's distinctive to CC only. Secondly, the Flash is a male, for obvious reasons, so that cuts out the entire female population."

Caitlin and I looked at each other nervous as Artemis continued to harrow down her options.

"Thirdly, he's an adult. Around 6 feet or so in stature, of strong build."

I gulped, guiltily.

"Fourthly, he is closely involved with the CCPD. Combined with your ... your _mentoring_... efforts here, and how he always show up right before the police do, I believe the Flash is using the police database along with the STAR Labs database to hunt down criminals. Am I correct?"

"No," Caitlin lied, turning red.

Artemis smiled.

"With that in mind, I looked through the STAR Labs entrance archives. Only _five_ members from the police station have authorized access granted to the Lab: Captain Singh, Lieutenant Briggs, Detective West, Detective Thawne, and CSI Barry Allen."

"Artemis..." I mumbled, unsure of how to respond.

Caitlin and I - we were both pretty proficient at hiding the Flash's identity...

But Artemis? There was no lying to her - she was just too keen, and had suspected Barry from the start...

 _Barry, if you could prance your speeding butt into the Cortex right about now and whisk Artemis out to lunch before Dr. Wells has our heads, that'd be just dandy..._

"It's Eddie," Artemis announced with a small smile.

Caitlin and I looked at each other, before immediately bursting out into loud, relieved laughter.

"What?" Artemis asked, not understanding us, "It makes sense - it has to be him. Everyone keeps telling me the Flash is someone I know. And of those five men, I only know three - Joe, Eddie and Barry."

"Oh, this is perfect," Caitlin murmured, wiping away a tear, "Explain to me again why you believe it's Eddie? Not that we're affirming or denying your statement."

Behind Artemis, Barry has appeared in the Cortex's hallway, just in time to hear Caitlin's last few words. An astonished light flashed through his eyes, and he covered his mouth with his fist - though I'm unsure if it's from shame or hilarity.

"Because," Artemis responded, slightly annoyed, "Eddie's tall enough to be the Flash. And he always pretends to play dumb whenever Iris and I are discussing him. And Iris has said the Flash visits her, sometimes at night. He flirted with her, even. Now, who else would flirt with Iris, other than someone who's in love with her? Has strong feelings for her?"

Caitlin made a cracking sound in her throat as she stifled another laugh, and behind Artemis, Barry turned on his heels and cringed, repeatedly tapping his head against the doorway in mortification.

Artemis noticed me looking over her shoulder and she turned around.

"Hey Barry," she intoned sweetly, "You're a bit late. I was just telling Caitlin and Cisco how I figured out who the Flash is."

"And?" Barry asked, giving her an expectant look, a strange look that is both pain and entertainment painted across his face.

"It's Eddie," Artemis challenged, her eyes lighting up in challenge, "Edward. Malcolm. Thawne."

Barry opened his mouth to say something, then closed it, slowly nodding his head.

"Why Eddie?"

"Because, Bartholomew, Eddie happens to be the _only_ tall, white male at the police department with authorized access to STAR Labs," Artemis explained, exaggerating her every word deliberately, taking Barry's hand in both of her own, caressing his long fingers with her own thin ones, one hand under his palm, eyebrows dramatically arched to highlight the irony in her words.

Barry stood there, puzzled at her action, and Artemis noticed. She gave him a small, clever grin, and hit her mark by lacing her hand through Barry's.

"Although, if it's not Eddie, then it's probably you," she murmured darkly, victory glinting evilly in her brown eyes as she judged his response.

Pin drop silence.

Damn Artemis, back at it again with the reverse psychology.

"I - umm," Barry stammered, before putting on a half-hearted grin and pulling his hand out of Artemis's and surprising her by turning her towards the entrance hallway, "You know what - we've discussed this before, and let's discuss it again, but over lunch. I'm starving."

"Don't ignore the question," Artemis warned as Barry led her through the tunnel, though it was easy to tell by the casualness in her tone that she was probably smiling.

"I'm not - I'm taking the question out for sushi," Barry responded easily, before both disappeared.

Beside me, Caitlin gave a loud sigh of relief.

"Do you think he'll tell her?" I asked, wanting this madness to be over.

"He won't if he knows what's good for her," Dr. Wells responded darkly, leaving his office. He smiled, "Although it was clever of her to boil it down to Eddie and Barry."

"To be honest, she's suspected Barry almost from the very beginning," I relented.

"Sir, can't we at least give her a chance at the Team?" Caitlin asked.

"I'm not going to take the risk of letting her backfire on us," Dr. Wells replied firmly.

"Okay - sir - have you _seen_ the two of them together?" Caitlin asked rhetorically, throwing her hands up in mock frustration, "If we told them the fate of the world depended on them getting married, they'd race up to the altar before we'd know it."

"The fate of the world does not, and never will, depend on them getting married, Dr. Snow," Wells responded, as if he would know, "And for the sake of professionalism - let's not make those sorts of childish analogies again."

"Why are you so uptight about her?" I asked, "You're the one who begged her to join the Lab, and you scolded us when we were unfamiliar with her. For hell's sake, you yelled at me when I locked her up in the Pipeline while showing her around, and I've locked _everyone_ up in the Pipeline. Including you."

"Sir, Cisco's right," Caitlin agreed, "You've been doting on her, then isolating her, and it's not leaving a good impression of you on her."

"Dr. Wells, sir, I don't see any harm in telling her, and I mean that from the bottom of my heart," I added, "I'm not trying to rebel against you - neither of us are - but we just want the best for the Lab."

Dr. Wells observed me keenly, narrowing his eyes at me.

"Felicity knows, Joe knows - for crying out loud, there are metahumans down in the Pipeline that know!"

"Cisco, Caitlin," Dr. Wells remarked, giving us both a cold look that we knew was him holding back his anger, "I've known this girl long before you both ever did. I know what she's like, and how she takes things -"

"Sir, she's an adult now," Caitlin argued, "And you can't hold someone's childhood against them, especially when she lost her parents like that. Just look at Barry!"

"See, that's it," Dr. Wells asserted, "You keep comparing her to Barry, as if that's somehow going to convince me she's like him. She's not, and you both know it. My decision is final, and I am going to have a nice talk with Mr. Allen about his little excursions with her."

"Sir - you can't just _force_ him to stay away from her!" I exclaimed, "That's so _rude_! And probably illegal!"

"And keeping uncharted metahumans in our basement _isn't_?" Dr. Wells challenged, glaring at me coldly, before his look melted into something familiar - the look of the father figure we had come to see Dr. Wells as, "Now, enough about Van Kleiss. Show me your work reviews."

* * *

I was up to my limits with this dismal drama.

Each one of them was becoming attached to the girl, and defying me because of her - when all I had asked was that she simply stay away from Team Flash.

Barry wanted to tell her.

Cisco wanted to tell her, because Cisco always agrees with Barry.

Even Caitlin now - sweet, sharp Caitlin who was always the most mature, sensible one in the group - even she was growing sick and tired of my weakened attempts at keeping Artemis from her destiny, while pushing Barry towards his own.

Something had to be done about Artemis to get them to change their minds, I thought, plotting a plan over the future newspaper article before me, and it had to be done now.

* * *

Today had actually been a good day, I thought to myself, walking home that night.

I had finally shown STAR Labs my work on the ecfranite, although Dr. Wells succumbed to his jerk psychology.

Caitlin and Cisco had been impressed by what I had done - hey, my parents won a Nobel for this stuff - and had tried to stand up for me.

Barry...

Barry was still as distant as ever. Whatever it was he was hiding from me, he put up a strong front about it.

At lunch, he easily dodged every question and accusation I had made, giving me his adorable smile and answering "Nope," to each remark I had made about him.

He had me stumped, and I still had no idea who the Flash was.

I wanted answers about my mother's murder. I hated knowing that there was a speedster in this city who resembled one of the lightning demons who killed her, and that I couldn't stop him.

For the sake of our friendship, I hoped I would find the Flash, so I could give him a nice slap across the face. Whatever connection he had to Barry was the reason Barry kept himself away from me.

"Barry, come on," I begged - for what must have literally been the hundredth time at the Japanese restaurant earlier that day, "Just tell me."

"I'm not telling you anything," Barry easily responded. God, I hated how easily he switched between Impossibly Dorky and Impossibly Suave. I needed Dorky Barry right now, not Suave Barry, although Suave Barry did things to my insides that even I wasn't sure I understood.

He looked so _kissable_ , it was maddening.

"Please?" I pleaded again, giving him my innocent, puppy smile. Even Dr. Wells couldn't resist my puppy face.

Barry pressed his lips together and shook his head now - for what must have literally been the hundredth time in response, before taking an easy bite of his sushi.

I scowled, and pulled the plate away from him, and neared it to my own, "If you won't tell me this instant, I'm going to - I'm gonna eat all of your precious sushi, Allen."

"Oh," Barry relented, wiping his mouth with his napkin like a gentleman, "By all means, go for it. Be my guest."

My scowl deepened, and Barry grinned at me darkly, as he crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back in his chair, watching me.

It didn't help that Eddie showed up at our _exact_ same restaurant that day, and I enthusiastically ran up to him and incessantly thanked him for all of the 'secret work that he's done behind the CCPD's backs' and how 'Iris is sure to be thankful for your little secret nighttime visits', to which he began to become more and more worried and shocked.

Had Barry not swooped in, firmly covered my mouth with his hand, and made up some smooth excuse to Eddie about how working with vankleissium was rattling my brain around - _ecfranite psychosis?_ \- I'm more than certain Detective Thawne would have awarded me a rather nice black eye.

I chuckled grimly at the memory as I entered Cloverleaf that night after returning from the South - I actually had no idea if Eddie actually was the Flash, and Barry was still as unreadable as ever.

I honestly had proposed my ridiculous theory about Thawne being the man in the red suit to mess around with Cisco and Caitlin - both were quite adorable when flustered.

Finally making my way over to the grassy quad where several apartment buildings are stacked up, I paused as I saw something in the distance, shining cruelly against the peaceful nighttime backdrop.

A red light, crackling with harsh, raw energy.

No, not a light - a _man_ , I realized in horror.

A man in an ugly yellow suit, surrounded in terrifying red electricity, at the edge of the Cloverleaf lawns - almost two kilometers away.

Can it be...

 _No,_ I prayed fearfully, my stomach twisting into a million knots, cold sweat covering every inch of my skin.

 _Please don't be_ **_him_.**

I gulped and closed my eyes, counted to ten, and opened again, hoping I was just hallucinating from the lack of sleep, that all this talk about the Flash had subconsciously reawakened memories of the other speedster.

He was closer to me now, I realized, and his figure was much clearer now.

Red lightning crackling over his phantomish body, his figure buzzing so his outline was never defined.

Boots washed in black - pitch black, like the feathers of a raven - slowly phasing into a hideous yellow as the specially-constructed suit covered his body up to his head.

And those _eyes_...

Those horrible, cold eyes, glowing menacingly red, shining with nothing but red hatred and crimson malevolence.

Adrenaline finally kicking in, waking me up from my horrified stupor, I turned and kicked up the stairs away from the demon who was slowly approaching me as fast as my legs would allow, and once at my door, I hurriedly looked over the ledge and behind myself to see if he was still there, if he had followed me.

No.

Nothing down at the lawns.

No audible footsteps.

No sign of life anywhere.

I was safe - _safe_ \- I had imagined the whole thing.

He wasn't here - _he wasn't here_ \- and he wasn't looking for me.

I took a deep sigh, though my heart still raced faster than a speedster ever could, and I fumbled with my keys, panicking until the little jagged piece of metal made its way into the coin-sized slot, my hands trembling as I fought the door open, stumbled into the darkness, grabbed my key out of the lock, quickly shut the door behind me and closed my eyes shut, and fought to catch my breath, and slid down the door to the ground, my back against the wooden frame.

 _Breath, Van Kleiss, breath._

 _It wasn't him, it wasn't him, it wasn't him._

 _You're losing your mind._

 _Caitlin's right - you need to get sleep._

Huffing to steady my breathing, heart slowing down from a sledge hammer to just a tiny ricochet in my chest, I took a deep breath.

I gulped and opened my eyes, expecting to see the comforting and ordinary outlines of my living room and kitchen in the unlit darkness.

My sense of peace and coziness was soon pierced by the sight of raven-black boots, standing directly in front of me.

Heartbeat faltering, I quivered as I gradually looked up, unable to process the sight of my yellow and black stalker, smiling unemotionally down at my helpless vulnerability.

A babyish whimper escaped my throat, and my eyes watered with hot tears, and I cowered back against the door.

"It's you," I whispered shakily, covering my face with wobbly hands, as if blocking him out of my view will protect me.

In a speeding flash of yellow and black, forceful fingers clenched my sweaty neck in a murderous grip, and effortlessly picked me up with one hand, pinning me by my neck to my door, no doubt leaving bruises, my neck straining from his grip, and from my body pulling it down as it hung at the speedster's mercy.

 ** _"It's good to see I'm remembered,"_** the being finally said in a low, roaring voice, laughing mechanically at my powerlessness, **_"I take it you know who I am?"_**

I whimpered in fear, tears burning out of my eyes, my own heartbeat pounding in my ears, and I emotionally crumbled at the expense of my opponent, memories of my loving parents flying through my head.

"You killed my mother," I finally squeaked, as I helplessly fought his stony hands with my own, mewling at my weakness against my powerful adversary, "And - and Papa. I know it was you who killed Papa."

The man in yellow snickered, pushing my neck deeper into the door, his hold on me turning homicidal as he curled his leathered fingers deeper into my skin, robbing me of my ability to breathe.

 ** _"Your parents weren't my only victims, Artemis,"_** the glowing menace replied, suddenly pulling me forward before brutally smashing my head back into the door, pinning me by my weakened neck once again. I barely managed to hear the frame through from the newfound, excruciating pressure in the back of my skull, **_"You know who else I've killed."_**

"Nora Allen," I choked with a sob, my eyesight doubling from the searing dizziness and huge, unruly tears growing in my eyes, "You - you killed Barry's mother too."

 ** _"That's right. I've always known you were a very smart woman,"_** the being replied, his freakish voice turning dangerously cool, his eyes becoming a harsher shade of fiery red, **_"I've always known everything about you. I've been watching you and Barry Allen for a looooong time."_**

The man lifted me off of the door, and painfully thrust me back into the door again, the heavy wood snapping under his blow, my brain reeling numbly in my skill.

"Please," I implored, my voice breaking out desperately, unable to control my foolish pleas, "Please don't kill me. Or Barry. I'll give you anything - money, answers, my things. Please don't hurt me - just tell me what you want, and you'll have it. Please don't-"

 ** _"Oh, you know exactly what I want. I've killed your parents, and I've killed Nora Allen,_** " the man answered, once yet tightening his hold on my feeble neck, _**"I'm here to finish the job."**_

"No, don't," I whimpered, my voice barely audible, tears caking my face, "I won't bother you again. I'll - I'll leave you alone -"

 _ **"Bother me?**_ " The man scoffed, **_"You haven't done anything to me. Not yet, anyway. But I'd like to stop you from becoming who you will, one day."_**

I began shaking, spasming restively as the glowing man burst into violent vibrations, his firm grasp on my neck now cutting through the tender skin like a hot carpet burn.

 _ **"I've heard you scream at night as a little girl, unable to sleep from horrific nightmares about me."**_

Unable to see clearly, I felt him pull me forward once more, before smashing me back again, each time going harder, completely softening out my skull, like he was crushing an eggshell.

 _ **"I've heard you cry out for your mother and father in your darkest moments of loneliness."**_

Smash!

 ** _"I've seen you sob as each new family promised to love you, like your parents did, and failed. But your parents were dead - what could these people know about caring for you?"_**

SMASH!

 _ **"I've been with you every moment as you ran away, as you tried to leave each unsatisfying home in the hopes of somehow finding something better on your own."**_

SMASH!

The demonic man ripped the door away and threw it behind him into my home, and easily stepped outside, holding me over the ledge. The fervent pain raging in my now jelly skull, I was barely able to make out his next words, barely able to notice that he was holding my body, like an impatient child holds an unwanted rag-doll, over the ledge, the concrete sidewalk fifty feet under my feet.

 ** _"Really, you've never lived without me knowing. I was there with you, watching you as you made your way back on track, as you went from a pitiful traumatized child to a powerful scientist. And I was watching when you came back to Central City, back to me, and I've been watching your every moment, seen your every detail as you've tried to hunt me and the Flash down."_**

"The Flash," I murmured, blood discharging out of my mouth, haziness blocking out my eyesight, "You're with him. I knew it."

 _ **"Oh, I'm not like the Flash at all, Artemis,"**_ the yellow-suited man answered in his deafening, monstrous voice, laughing coldly, _**"Some would say I'm the reverse. And I think it's time I teach you something about myself."**_

With that last word, the man threw my near-lifeless body over the edge, and I saw him jump over the ledge himself at undefinably fast speeds, his icy, burning grip catching again at my neck, and he raced through town, dragging me helplessly behind him. He coursed over the streets, zooming turbulently around cars much faster than I could recall the Flash running, letting my body thrash and break in contact with the road burning under me, the pain so intense, I wished he would just kill me.

He continued toying with me this way for what felt like centuries. Time slowed down around us as the yellow and black man rocketed through the city, me hanging helplessly by my neck at his hand - him putting just enough pressure, angling me just the right way so I suffered, but wasn't dead - the city blurring into bright streaks of light, the air cutting like knives into my numb, searing skin, my clothes shredding in contact with the burning concrete underneath me.

He finally stopped running, and let me collapse like a corpse onto the tiled floor of a dark room. Hunching over my shaking, injured frame, the demonic speedster turned and kicked me swiftly in the stomach, more blood spilling from my mouth at the impact.

 _ **"Sit up straight, unless you want to go for another run,"**_ he ordered, jittering with angry crimson lightning. Clutching my innards, I slowly obeyed, and found a shred of strength in myself, and leaned up.

We were in a dark room, with display lights turned off. From the moonlight pouring in from outside, I could see various weapons shining, displayed on the walls - elegant swords, machetes, scythes, obsidian clubs, hunting knives, giant machine guns, fat coils of thorned rope, bloodied fabric.

Metal glinting in the face of the silver moonlight, I could make out display cases. Elegant labels.

I recognized the room.

 _ **"Do you know where we are?"**_ The man before me asked.

"The - the Central City Museum. Of American History," I answered. I had been here before, and decided to take a look around while on my second day in town, after Dr. Wells had discussed my commencement with me, "We're in the War Throughout Time Exhibit."

 _ **"That's right. Good girl,**_ " the tall, gleaming figure replied in his thunderous, robotic voice, before quickly speeding to me and hitting me with several punches across my worn face, across my back and stomach, into my shoulders and chest, blood red lightning crackling over him as he sped around me.

 _ **"And can you imagine why I brought you here?"**_

"No shit Sherlock," I croaked weakly, tears wetting my skin as I hugged my aching, body, every muscle - every tendon - inside me convulsing with tiny spasms from the man's sudden attacks, "You want to kill me. You said so earlier."

 _ **"I brought you here to teach you a lesson,"**_ The beast answered, unimpressed by my forlorn sarcasm. I heard the cringing sound of metal being unsheathed, and turned around, huffing against my physical pain. I watched in horror as the yellow speedster held out an elegant sword, etched with Chinese symbols, a silk tassel hanging from the brown leather handle, and pointed it towards me.

 _ **"You see, weapons don't kill people,"**_ The man continued, admiring the sword as he swung it with surprising grace in the air, before replacing it. He turned and faced me, his figure still vibrating, _**"Mankind's desire for power and order over others kills people. And you, Artemis, my dear, you are trying to approach this desire for order over others in a unique way, one I admire you for."**_

Cold sweat washed over me again...

What was he talking about? Desire for order over others?

 ** _"Oh, don't worry. I'm not going to kill you,"_** he answered, walking towards me, leaning down on one knee before me, giving me a perfect view of his olive-colored skin, pulsating with bright vibrations, under his ugly yellow cowl, his eyes nothing more than two, tiny red suns, shining harshly at me, _**"Our rivalry is as old as time itself. I'm not going to be doing myself any favors by murdering you here and now - that will only take the fun out of the future. You see - we'll have our own War Throughout Time soon enough."**_

I looked at him in fear, before a newfound strength grew in my muscles.

What the hell - I couldn't fight this guy. He was too strong - he was a murderous speedster - and I was an injured, bruised, woman, soaked in her own blood across her body, my numerous bruises pulsating painfully.

Any desire to fight back, however, was quenched permanently as, horrified beyond my own capability, I watched as the man slowly lifted up a black-gloved hand, which sparked with red lightning as it began vibrating - similar to the way a steel blade moves in a blender, only back and forth instead of in circular rotations.

 _ **"I came here to show you that I don't need weapons to kill you,"**_ the monster continued, the edges of his mouth lifting in a dark grin, _**"You and I are both capable of more damage with our bare hands than we would ever be armed."**_

With each word, he brought his vibrating, knife-like hand towards my left breast, and I watched as my heart rate skyrocketed as he almost touched the clothed skin which covered my heart. I could practically feel my heartbeat disappearing as his electric energy grew closer to me.

In a flash of vivid memories, I recalled the pictures of my father's murder scene - his body at his autopsy. A gaping hole in his chest, through his back and sternum, as if something burned a hole right through his heart, killing him instantly.

 _ **"You're a very, very dangerous and smart woman,"** _The man complimented, his grin morphing into an ugly frown. He grabbed me by the front of my Star Wars shirt and pulled me in, closer to his face, _ **"Continue looking for me. Continue searching for the Flash. Continue any of this nonsense, and I am going to bathe you in Barry Allen's blood."**_

The man in the yellow suit then quickly struck his heavy hand back across my face, knocking me out, and I fell backwards, my head splitting against the cold tile floor.

###

In a flash of hellish red lightning, he vanished from the room, and after allowing myself to go into mental shock, I exhaled, and the tears stopped - as if I was suddenly too tired to cry.

Too tired to scream.

Too tired to breathe.

Too tired to think.

Too tired to do anything, other than replay this whole scenario in my head.

 _I've heard you cry out for your mother and father in your darkest moments of loneliness._

I slumped forward, and clutched my aching head with one hand, the other on my thigh, burning with pain from his little drag-along run through Downtown earlier, which nearly destroyed my legs.

I quickly checked for broken bones, carefully poking the areas drowned in fiery pain.

Nothing.

I was fine, save for the fact that my clothes were shredded to embarrassing tatters, and I was gifted with huge, baseball-sized purple bruises all over myself, each more painful than the one before it.

The man in the yellow suit…. The man who killed my parents…. He was a monster.

The living epitome of my nightmares.

 _Continue looking for me. Continue searching for the Flash. Continue any of this nonsense, and I am going to bathe you in Barry Allen's blood._

Barry Allen.

Barry - Barry was in danger too!

The man in yellow would look for him - he'd _kill_ him if I continued chasing after speedsters.

I couldn't have that - I couldn't let that happen to Barry. I swore I would never look for the Flash again, and I would never try to hunt down the man in yellow, either.

I shivered powerfully, and felt a strange bump in my pocket, and pulled out a thin black sliver of metal and glass-like plastic.

My phone.

Such a strange familiarity - my phone having fared through this madness much better than I did - my clothes being in burnt tatters, my body covered in my own blood, decorated with numbing purple bruises, the pain in my head undescribable, but my phone? Perfectly fine.

I picked it up and dialed the only number my sore brain was able to remember, and put the phone to my ear.

 _(9-1-1,)_ the operator responded in her kind, motherly voice, _(What is your emergency?)_

"I - I'm - I've -" I stammered, unable to find my voice after all of this physical trauma, any words that could form out of my mouth reduced to a series of fearful gasps as I accepted the hell I just went through.

How was I supposed to explain that the demon who had killed my parents had returned?

How was I supposed to say that I was being hunted down by someone who could not be found?

How was I supposed to equivocate that Barry was in danger too? That this man said he had been watching us since we were children?

 _(Ma'am?)_

"I need help," I finally managed, my voice cracking dryly as a new batch of tears pierced out of my tear glands, watered down my eyes, stroking down my face, "I've been attacked…"


	15. Rest in Peace, Artemarry

**[Barry's POV]**

I decided to actually head back to the forensics lab that night after dinner. Dr. Wells had asked his scientists for work reviews, and Captain Singh was harrowing down on me for my own forensics reports - which I, once again, had infamously not finished on time.

Nights at the CCPD were almost always usually busy - cops busy taking down nighttime criminals, others frantically typing up their own reports for Singh, Lake grumbling at her receptionist's desk as paperwork piled itself high with each finished report.

I greeted a few of the other officers - Joe and Eddie were at their shared work area in the back, discussing something with Lieutenant Briggs - before escaping to the peace of my forensics lab, quietly closing the door behind me, sighing contently.

Oh, _Artemis..._

You wily young woman...

Dr. Wells had been extremely unimpressed when we returned from our failed lunch date, and demanded a word alone with me.

"Distance yourself from her," he muttered to me, the both of us alone in his office, "She's a dangerous distraction. She'll cause problems."

"To be fair, sir?" I answered, not wanting to be rude to a man I could consider a father, but at the same time, having reached the peak of my limits with this nonsense, " _You're_ the only one causing problems here. I'm going back to work."

And now - I was in my forensics lab again.

"Barry, you fool," Artemis had mumbled at lunch that day, adorably upset at me for not disclosing Flash-related secrets to her after her incessant begging, "I don't care who the Flash is, or what relation he has to you. I'm doing this to find out who killed my parents, and why. Now - I'm going to ask you again: Who is he?"

I easily threw her off by distracting her with a smirk - she had a tendency to blush and look away, adorabingly unnerved by my easiness around her.

In turn, I found her cute forcefulness just as irresistible. She had a unique, geeky charm about her, and when Artemis went upstairs to her lab room upon our return from lunch, Cisco had exposed to Caitlin how easily I got jealous over her by bragging about how he and Artemis had matching backgrounds on their phones - eliciting a rather defensive protest from me.

"Dude, shut up! It's just a selfie!" I declared, trying not to blush.

"Uh-huh," Cisco jested quietly, nudging my elbow, "Fastest man alive on the streets, but he'll fall completely weak in the knees in the shee-"

Dr. Wells cleared his throat threateningly behind him before Cisco could finish his sentence - the one time I was probably grateful to see Wells annoyed with him.

I sighed again, taking in the sight of my messy lab. Making sure the door was properly shut, I darted around the hall in full-speed, cleaning up the sloppiness, lest Singh find another excuse to bark at me.

Finishing, I sat down at my desk, and began typing the darned report, before my weak attention span got the better of me, and I checked my email, checked my Facebook (For the _last_ time, Cisco, stop tagging me in your selfies with Artemis. It's not going to get to me. It's not going to make me jealous. I'm not bitter about it at ALL - I swear. *cough*)

After screwing around on the internet for some more time, I grimly clicked the link to Artemis's online archive, and watched the security footage again with a heavy heart.

It _was_ me.

Artemis had been right all along.

I didn't know how - I didn't know why - but that was me, in my red suit, with the red emblem on my chest, fighting my unknown yellow opponent around her parent's bedroom.

Red and yellow lightning.

I wasn't sure if those were the colors of the wheel of lightning circling around my mother that fateful night - but what were the chances there could be other speedsters?

Joe and Cisco wanted to reopen the investigation, and actually had searched through my old home, encountering a rather flirtatious, elderly woman in the process.

Using a special projector Cisco had built that would show the images ingrained in the traces of silver nitrate on the back of a mirror from that night, Joe and Cisco had found a trace of blood etched into the wall.

After Cisco tested the blood, Joe told me Artemis was right.

I _was_ there that night.

Not 11 year old me - he had been swept out 20 blocks away - but me from the future. The age-sensitive proteins the blood revealed I would somehow be back in my mother's living room that night - after having reached 25 years of age.

I still had a few months to go - still had time to figure this mess out - still had time to find the man in the yellow suit, plan out how to stop him from at least killing Artemis's mother, if he wasn't the one who had attacked my home.

Little did I know I would get my wish and encounter my timeless foe soon enough.

"Barry!" Eddie called out, banging loudly on my door as I typed my report. Startled, I used my speed to run up and answer.

"What is it?" I asked, opening the door.

"It's Artemis. She's been attacked. They need CSI," Eddie explained, quickly turning down the hall to the stairs, "Come on!"

Artemis had been attacked _again?_

Hadn't the kidnapping the other day been enough?

I wished I could have used my speed - but instead was forced to heavy regret brew in my chest as I was doomed to slow travel - beside Joe, Eddie, Singh and Lieutenant Briggs in a single car, holding my CSI kit.

 _(Code Three on Channel Two, over)_ a female officer spoke on the dispatch radio, _(I repeat - Code Three, Detective Thawne, please tell me you've left the station. This is a Code 217.)_

Code 217.

Assault, with intent to murder.

Someone had tried to kill her.

Hot anger flared within me.

"We're on our way," Eddie responded seriously, turning on the siren of the car as he picked up speed and other cars moved out of the way for us, "Shelton, give it to me."

 _(The victim's name is Artemis Van Kleiss -)_ , Officer Shelton explained over the dispatch, my heart falling at the sound of 'Artemis' and 'victim' spoken synonymously, _(- Female. 21 years old. Scientist at STAR Lab. She stated that she had been stalked to her apartment by a speedster dressed in yellow, before he assaulted her and abducted her from her home, taking her to the war weapons exhibit at the museum and assaulting her one last time before he disappeared.)_

Joe looked over at me with a worried confusion, and I returned the look.

The other speedster was in the city...

"Now, this speedster," Briggs asked with scorn, "Was it the Streak? The - what are the kids calling him nowadays? The Flash? Did he do this?"

The dispatcher fell silent, as Eddie continued to race throughout downtown, zooming through the pouring rain, the hazy lights, before Shelton answered, confused.

 _(Shelton on Channel Two, Shelton on Channel Two - the victim said he was nothing like the Flash - far more dangerous - and that she doubts the Flash was involved.)_

Artemis, I'm not working with anyone other than STAR Labs. I would never do anything to hurt you, I thought bitterly.

Up ahead were several other police cars, a firetruck and an ambulance, and I know we've arrived at the old museum. Eddie parked the police car, and soon we were all out, jogging through the nighttime rain as fast as we would - as fast as _they_ could; I could've traced the entire city in that time - and an officer at the front door allowed Joe, Eddie, Briggs and Singh inside, me still having to show him my badge.

"Barry Allen. CSI," I explained, fumbling to hold out my badge before the guarding officer allowed me inside.

Artemis was found almost immediately - her back to me as she was seated in the lobby, dutifully wrapped in a shock blanket, as medics fruitlessly tried to comfort her, Officer Shelton and another officer gently asking for questions.

Eddie, Joe and the other cops made their way over to her.

"Barry, you're in the weapons exhibit," called out an officer. I gave him a halfhearted nod, before disobeying and joining my companions at the front of the lobby, where they were with Artemis.

As I turned to join them, I held my breath and widened my eyes at Artemis's disposition as she quietly answered the cops' questions. Eddie got down on one knee, his tone kind as he put a gentle, reassuring hand to her bloody shoulder.

One eye was horribly surrounded by a thick purplish black. Her lower lip was fat and swollen - busted. Her hair, always tied down in a neat bun - resembled a tumbleweed, as if it was relentlessly pulled at.

The worst part?

Her entire skin - all of it that I could see anyway - peppered in dark red bruises, as if someone repetitively beat her, contusions concentrated on her neck, on her hands, clutching the blanket, on the parts of her calves that are exposed, on her face...

My insides buckled and I involuntarily stepped towards her.

"Artemis?" I mumbled helplessly, wanting to help her, "Are you alright?" though it was obvious she wasn't.

She finally took notice of me standing a few feet behind Briggs and Joe.

Artemis immediately enlarged her good eye, and began cowering in panic, turning to Eddie, her breath falling short and shaky.

"No, nonono, he can't be here. Barry, leave. _Please_ ," she whimpered, as if the sight of me pained her ever more, looking to Joe, to Eddie, glancing around as if she's looking for someplace to hide from me, "No - Eddie, Joe, Captain - ask him to leave. _Please_ \- he can't be here. He can't be with me - he can't be here. Please -"

Singh threw slow worried glances between the two of us.

"Barry, you should be in the other room, anyway," he advised. Eddie put his arm around her, and cajoled her that it was okay, and that I was going. Joe gave me a strange look, a silent plea asking what was going on - why Artemis suddenly did not want me with her.

I gave Artemis one sad last look before turning away, and heading to the crime scene. I could hear her whimpers die down as I left.

The crime scene was almost bare - save for samples of blood, which proved to be Artemis's. No other signs of DNA. An officer entered the room with a tablet computer.

"Security footage," he explained, and I got up to watch with him.

Nothing happened for a few moments, before the yellow speedster burst into the room, dropping a near-lifeless Artemis onto the cold floor, before kicking her hard in her stomach.

The sight made my blood stop in its veins.

We continued watching as the man in yellow picked up one of the Zhanmadao decorative swords, and I flinched as he swung it - calming down after seeing it didn't touch Artemis, and he replaced it.

"There," the officer announced, pointing at the actual sword in front of us, a command for me to do my CSI magic on it.

"Let me know if there's anything else," I mumbled, before going up to the sword, displayed carefully on a ledge, and carefully removing it with gloved hands.

Anger filled through me as I worked, and not the kind that had consumed me when Smoke Ghost had taken her. Not jealous anger.

Pure anger.

Desire for revenge.

A friend of mine had been severely hurt, and had been scared, belittled into a shivering, bloodied mess, cowering away from me in a yellow blanket.

As I worked, I heard familiar yelling outside in the lobby.

"No, you have to let us in!" Caitlin's voice pleaded at the front door, "I'm her friend - I'm her doctor!"

The officer at the door grunted denial of access.

"Dude - you have to let us inside!" Cisco added, "She needs us!"

I quickly stepped outside again, Artemis once again turning frantic at the sight of me, and Eddie took her into his arms, assuring her it was fine. Joe pulled out his walkie talkie and spoke something into it.

"They're with me!" I called out to the officer guarding the door. He nodded, and Caitlin and Cisco entered, running straight for Artemis, taking her from Eddie into their own arms.

Artemis pressed her eyes closed, and pressed herself into Caitlin's embrace, mumbling insensibly.

"What?" Cisco gasped, putting his hand on her back, before shooting me a scared look.

Artemis began weeping and repeated herself. Caitlin looked up at me, worried.

"Barry, you can't be here with her."

"Why?" I asked, uncertainty consuming me.

"She - she said you're in danger by being around her," Cisco stammered in disbelief, "That the man in yellow threatened to kill you, if you were anywhere near her."

Briggs gave me a sad nod, affirming what Cisco said.

"She believes that the man is the one responsible for the death of your mother, as well as both of her parents," Briggs explained solemnly, "He told her he came back to... to finish the job."

A tingling sensation, cold and liquid, shot up and down my back, and I scowled.

 _The other speedster used Artemis to warn me?_

"Get him out," Artemis pleaded, still wound tightly in Caitlin's embrace,"Get him away from me. Please. Tell him to leave."

"Bar?" Joe called, a look of pity gazing back at me, "Away from her. Now."

I obeyed this time, and went back to the Zhanmadao sword, collecting the sample of blood off of the floor, working quietly, listening as Artemis was taken back to the station, Cisco and Caitlin leaving with her, listening as Wells spoke to Singh over the phone.

I returned to my lab again, taking the sword with me as evidence.

I found zit. Nothing.

Singh ordered for me to go with a few other cops, including Joe and Eddie, to Artemis's home. Other than her broken glasses and a torn down door - indicating that the perpetrator had immense physical strength - we couldn't find anything. No signs of break in, no evidence to point to who he could be, what he wanted, nothing.

The next few days hadn't been particularly enjoyable.

Artemis avoided me - at all costs.

If she hung out with Caitlin, Cisco, Iris - she did so alone. Without me.

She sought comfort in them, and in knowing I wasn't with them - which hurt, to be honest.

Cisco would invite her over to his apartment to play video games, the two of them singing off-tune songs, laughing in each other's company.

Caitlin whisked her away on shopping binges - 'spree therapy', she jokingly called it - and the two of them joining up for sisterly bonding moments at restaurants, at the movies, at Caitlin's home.

There would be moments when she fell silent, sadness conveying itself loud on her silent face, but if prompted, or asked what as wrong by either Caitlin, Cisco or Dr. Wells, it would immediately disappear, became replaced with a reassuring smile, easily hiding her fear and pain.

And Artemis had always been on good terms with Iris. When the duo would be chilling at our house, or hanging out in downtown, God _forbid_ I should show up, or return from work, or I'd elicit foolish excuses from Artemis, reasoning with Iris to let her leave.

I entered my home once after work, and saw the two of them laughing with Eddie at our dinner table. Artemis turned and noticed me, and her smile immediately melted, replaced itself with a shaky worry.

"Hey - Iris," she mumbled, getting up from her chair, "I'm really, really sorry, but I just remembered I had a thing to send Dr. Wells. I gotta get going."

"Work review?" Iris asked knowingly, "For your ecfranite disbursement reaction?"

"Yeah," Artemis replied, recognition shining in her eyes, "How'd you know?"

"Because that's the third time this week you've had to write that review, Artemis."

Artemis's eyes fell to the ground, in a dead, guilty fashion.

Eddie perked up, understanding the situation.

"Well, Iris, you actually wouldn't believe how varied ecfranite minerals can be."

"Ecfranite _particles_ , Eddie, not minerals," Iris corrected with a sigh.

"Same thing. I'd let Artemis go, if I were you," Eddie conceded. Artemis smiled hopefully at Iris, who rolled her eyes and excused her, and Artemis chirped a thank-you before jolting out the door, not even looking at me, getting in her car, and rushing off.

Iris huffed, and crossed her arms.

"Barry, I know she leaves because of you," Iris remarked, annoyed, "Why do you show up right when we're having loads of fun?"

I shrugged weakly in response.

"Just ask her out already, so she's not running away from you," she demanded, irritated.

Eddie gave me a pitiful look.

"I'm sorry about her, bro," he whispered to me on his way out the door, before forcing a relaxed smile as Iris watched us quizzically.

If Artemis saw me at the Lab, she gave me the widest berth possible, avoided all contact, giving me nothing more than a quick, clipped "hi" to my "Good mornings," locking herself in her lab whenever I showed up to visit the team.

"Cheer up, Barry," Cisco offered meekly, "She's not doing it to hurt you. She still cares for you, but she's just scared. She - she met the man who murdered her mother, and he threatened to kill you before disappearing. I'd be adamant about avoiding you too, if that was me in her shoes."

"Cisco's right, Barry," Dr. Wells agreed, scowling, "I hate that it had to come to this, but you can't do anything but go with it. She's going to be in danger if she interferes with the Flash."

Meaning I could never admit to her it was me in the red mask.

"Continue looking for me. Continue searching for the Flash, continue any of this nonsense, and I am going to bathe you in Barry Allen's blood."

Yeah, that didn't sound too good for either of us...

When the alarms would go off in the Cortex, signifying a rampaging meta on the loose and that Team Flash would soon be back in action, you had never seen a girl dash so fast into the Cortex, grab her car keys, and drive off at illegally fast speeds.

She'd go to Thompson, and sought refuge with him. She crashed at his place several nights a week - Thompson told me when I visited to ask about her.

"She's scared of the man in yellow," the boy murmured, now able to stop his smoking completely - leaving him nothing more than a ghostly 18 year old, skillfully trained in the art of wielding smoke by will - thanks to the woman tossing and turning as she slept fitfully on his springy excuse of a couch, whimpering at the thunder raging outside. Thompson allowed a small stream of gas to fly to her, gently knocking her out so she slept better.

"She thinks he's waiting for her, inside her home, or something. She hasn't slept at her own home in a week."

I wanted to kick a wall down.

I hated being so helpless, and I hated knowing that the yellow speedster - this, this _reverse_ version of me - was in hiding, biding his time, waiting to strike again, and I hated how easily he now controlled mine and Artemis's lives.

###

A few days later, and I caught Artemis by the arm in the hallway of STAR Labs. She froze, and looked up at me in sheer horror.

"Barry, stop," she whispered, looking away from me in shame, "You're in danger because of me. And I hate it. I hate it, and you need to let go of me."

She wrenched her elbow out of my grasp, and walked away.

I sighed, and went into the Cortex.

Moments later, and the Cortex alarms sounded. In a quick scuttle of footsteps, Artemis left. Joining Caitlin, Cisco and Wells in the Cortex, I watched as the security screen showed Artemis driving off.

"Barry, go," Dr. Wells permitted, and I zoomed into my suit, papers fluttering down to the floor behind me.

"What am I looking at?" I asked, almost hoping it was the man in yellow, as the city blurred around me.

 _(Man with gun. First Street,)_ Caitlin responded, tired, _(Has been on the run for four days now, police haven't been able to catch him.)_

"Meta?" I asked, still coursing through the city.

 _(Nope. Just a man with a gun. Name's William Burke. Arrested last week, escaped the county jail, blablahblah,)_ Cisco ranted, _(We're just as bored with these guys as you are, Barry.)_

I sighed and stopped at the corner of First Street - the street where Jitters was, where SilverShock had attacked.

Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Outside Jitters, I spotted Iris, Linda Park, and another woman with long, dark hair chatting with smiles over coffee. Around the street, everything else seemed normal too. People calmly milled around, walking from store to store.

Typical summer afternoon in Central City.

 _(Barry, do you see him?)_

"No..."

Iris, Linda and dark-haired friend got up, disposed of their drinks, and walked away.

Suddenly, our little villain showed up - emphasis on _little_ , not villain.

"Put your hands up!" The short man, dressed in all denim, demanded in a low, hoarse voice, shaking his gun to scare the women, "And hand over your wallets, or you'll be seeing heaven!"

 _(There he is!)_

 _(Get him!)_

I stood still.

For the strangest reason, I wanted to watch what would happen.

Iris, Linda and their unrecognizable friend stood still, the first two obeying fearfully as they scrambled to get their purses, the third stubbornly scowling as she watched her friends be coerced into giving up their possessions.

I should have raced in and saved them, but the third woman surprised me, and I was frozen in place as I watched her.

There was a cool challenge playing in her eyes, behind her glasses.

This guy had just picked the wrong fight.

"Why aren't you listening to me, huh?" He ordered brusquely, focusing his gun on the last woman.

She cocked her head slightly to the side, and a dark smile tipped on her lips - a smile I recognized immediately, and had not seen in days.

Artemis quickly shot one hand forward, grabbing her would-be-assailant's arm, twisting it so he dropped the gun and cried out in pain, before she pinned her other hand to the back of his neck and pushed him face-first into the wall.

"Wow," she remarked, pushing him into the wall, "Do they just let _anyone_ become a criminal nowadays? I mean, I've seen two-legged chairs that can support themselves better than you."

Linda and Iris broke into relieved grins at her words as they collected their belongings off of the ground.

I too managed a smile, and shot forward, taking the man - and his gun - to the police station, where I left him tied up helplessly in Singh's office, before running back to First Street.

 _(Barry, you can come back now.)_ Caitlin murmured.

 _(What are you doing?)_ Wells asked, outraged.

Iris and Linda were gushing over Artemis, Iris with her arm around Artemis and Linda wearing a lopsided smirk as she spoke, when I stepped in.

 _"If you keep up like this, I'm gonna be out of a job,"_ I stated, vibrating my vocal cords in my throat, as I smiled at Artemis.

She faced me with a look of pure horror fleeting through her eyes, taking me in with horrified eyes.

Dammit, I remembered.

 _Great job, Allen - she just got kidnapped by a speedster who threatened to kill her two weeks ago - and now you show up, in your speedster costume._

 _Genius, aren't you?_

Iris raised an eyebrow as she drew glances between myself and the stunned woman in front of me, and Linda furrowed her eyebrows.

 _(Barry, don't you dare-)_ Dr. Wells warned.

 _"Look, I gotta have a word with you,"_ I declared, quickly scooping Artemis up.

She yelped as I dashed down First Street - to the center of Downtown CC, where I saw my desired building and kicked a leg forward as I reached it, now running vertically. The wind poured down my face, and Artemis closely hugged my neck and chest, grimacing as the air forced her hair to flip around wildly, before I reached the very top of the skyscraper and set her on her feet.

She froze as she stumbled to stand up straight (- probably from vertigo. I kept forgetting how weakening it could be to be a human - no offense.) and she dropped her jaw as she saw where we were, and who she was with.

 _"Hi,"_ I said shyly, unsure of what to do. I hadn't exactly thought the situation out, _"Umm... You look awesome with your hair down."_

She widened her eyes in pure terror, and let out a piercing scream.

 _(Mr. Barry Allen,)_ Dr. Wells seethed through the comms, able to hear everything I was doing, _(What on earth are you up to?!)_

 _"Hey - hey!"_ I murmured, quickly turning off the commlink in my little lightning antennas on the sides of my head, not caring what Wells thought, " _It's okay!_ " I assured with a laugh. Artemis frantically grabbed at my forearms, holding me by my elbows, before looking down at the city at our feet, her breathing quickly turning shaky at the sight of the potentially plummeting fall. I held her arms in an attempt to give her comfort, to anchor her.

 _"'Fraid of heights?"_ I asked affectionately. Artemis looked back at me, her black hair being tossed around her head by the wind, and gave fast, small nods of her head.

"Heights," she squeaked, gulping, "And speedsters. Heights and speedsters."

 _"Ooh. Ouch,"_ I replied, smiling at her, _"I can remedy both those fears for you. Hold on."_

I quickly pulled her into a surprise embrace, holding her tight, before jumping over the edge of the building, my feet catching onto the sides of Central Tech Industries' HQ Tower. Artemis screamed again, and I tried to see where I was going as the wind whipped her hair in my face, before swerving and stopping at a lower area of the building.

Still clutching my torso, she looked over the edge. Instead of 600 feet above the ground, we were now only 200.

Still private, but not nearly as terrifying.

 _"Better?_ " I asked, smiling at how she was holding me.

"Y- yeah," she admitted, her voice still shaky, her skin shivering powerfully. I could feel her heartbeat hammering against her chest. She gulped and looked up at me, giving me a sheepish smile, "I'm sorry - I just - I just -"

She suddenly fell limp in my arms, her lithe frame slumping against my chest.

 _"Woah - woah, hey,"_ I mumbled worriedly. Unconscious?

Who would've expected her to have fainted?

Still holding her, I kneeled down and laid her across the concrete roof, my own heart thumping madly as I cupped the back of her head in my hand, other hand pressing quickly at her chest, unable to believe I was actually about to do what I was going to do.

I brought my face over hers, feeling nervous and giddy as I slotted my lips over hers, breathing quickly in order to revive her, warning my tongue to stay inside my own mouth.

After a minute or two, I felt what must have been a cough, and a weak hand pushed my chest away, and I sat up straight on my knees.

Artemis slowly rose, and arched an eyebrow at me, before pouting.

"Yup, still living a nightmare," she murmured, crawling over and sitting against the wall to the next level of the building.

I moved and sat beside her.

 _"I know how you feel,"_ I replied, trying not to smile.

"Do you?" She retorted, "I know Cisco's in there, somewhere. And so is Caitlin, Dr. Wells, and probably Barry, too. They call themselves Team Flash, and they probably heard all of that. And Cisco's going to make fun of me for passing out."

She leaned in closer to me, and reached a hand up to tweak the lightning bolt on the side of my cowl. She accidentally turned on the radio communications system.

"How does this thing work?" She asked.

 _(We're back online! Yes!)_ Cisco hailed.

 _(Barry, are you there?)_ Dr. Wells questioned, _(Where are you?)_

I watched nervously as Artemis narrowed her eyes at me, before sitting on her knees, and cupping my chin and the back of my head in her hands, angling the side of my head towards her as she put her ear beside mine, listening, surprisingly comfortable around me.

 _(What's happening?)_ Caitlin murmured.

 _(I - I don't know,)_ Dr. Wells muttered, _(I don't hear a thing on the other line.)_

Pause.

 _(Do you think he's dead?)_ Cisco joked, _(Did she kill him?)_

I watched in curiosity as Artemis turned her head, facing me with a smile, before she started yelling directly into my ear.

"Hi guys!" She shouted, "I'm with the Flash! Can you hear me?!"

She put her ear to mine again.

 _(Loud. And. Clear,)_ Cisco answered.

"Cisco - Where's Dr. Wells?! And Barry?! Is Caitlin there?! Hi, Cait!"

 _"Ow - you don't need to yell,_ " I scolded gently, " _These are the best commlinks in the world. They can hear everything."_

 _(She... doesn't know where Barry is?)_ Caitlin asked, surprised, _(That's... not good.)_

We both could hear Dr. Wells exhale, finally defeated in his efforts to keep us apart.

"Sorry for yelling," Artemis apologized. I turned the comms off once more, craving privacy and - cautiously - put my hands at her waist. I leaned in, and she blushed deeply.

"Umm... Okay..." she mumbled, still blushing as she pushed me away, surprised, "You definitely aren't Eddie Thawne, then."

 _"You've figured out who I was rather long ago,_ Artemis," I offered, purposely switching off the vibrations in my voice when I said her name, daring her to make the conclusion.

"Did I?" She murmured rhetorically, one hand reaching up to stroke my cheek, "Because I haven't seen cheekbones _this_ nice since..."

An unreadable emotion flickered in her brown eyes, and she took off her glasses, folding the temples in and placing them down on the ground.

Carefully, she placed a leg over mine, I let her ease herself in my lap, sitting on my thighs.

My hands went to the outer sides of her legs, and she carefully stroked my cheek again - barely brushing against my skin - before her fingertips gently found their way under the pieces of the cowl under my eyes, softly lifting it up.

I bowed my head back, allowing her to easily pull the thick, leather-like metal material back, and she leaned in closer to my torso to get a better reach, pulling the cowl down now.

A tiny gasp escaped her lips - but the expression was soon replaced with a small, grateful smile.

"Barry," she whispered, her smile growing brighter as she slowly adjusted herself back onto her knees, looking down at me knowingly, "It's you. You're the Flash..."

"Hey, Artemis," I murmured, entranced by the pretty gold flecks in her eyes.

"Why - why didn't you just tell me it was you?" She asked softly, pouting.

"I didn't want you to be afraid of me."

A few moments passed of us just studying each other in silence.

"Barry, I could never be afraid of you," she finally whispered, placing one hand at the side of my face, curling her other arm around me.

My hands did the same, and we cautiously pulled each other in - my nervous, tingly lips meeting her soft, cool ones once more, this time actually kissing instead of administering CPR, although, at the rate my heartbeat was skyrocketing, _I_ was going to be the one needing CPR soon enough.

My hands drew down to her waist once more, holding her in place, and both of her arms pinned themselves around my shoulders, her sweet-tasting lips kneading cautiously against my own, testing me.

I leaned my back lower onto the roof, letting the moment deepen, and the feeling grow more intimate when I leaned again, lying on my back now, holding her over me. I traced one hand up her back, lost the other one in her dark, flowy hair, and prodded along her teeth with my untameable tongue.

She allowed me in, moaning gently as I caressed the inside of her cool mouth, kissing me harder as she enjoyed it.

We continued, my insides stiffening as the kiss began to grow more urgent, and she suddenly pulled away, her hand at my chest as she softly panted for air after the long kiss.

"Are you happy now?" I questioned foolishly, beaming with victorious satisfaction in her embrace. I closed my eyes, slinging one arm under my head, unable to believe what just happened.

She playfully ruffled my hair, and I peeked out of one eye to see her carefully studying me, no expression apparent on her face, or in her brown eyes, on her mouth - anywhere.

"No," she finally answered, with a careless shrug.

"No?" I repeated incredulously, disappointed, tightening my arm around her.

She leaned in, elbows at my chest, hands under my head, and closed her eyes, breathing over my lips as she brushed her nose against mine.

"I want more."

###

I suddenly shot straight up - finding myself not on the 20th floor rooftop of Central Tech Industries' HQ Tower, but in my _bed_ \- disappointingly, without Artemis. Outside, the rain was pounding down heavily, a blast of thunder scaring off any remnants of sleep.

A dream...

Yeah, too many things had been strange for it to be real.

For one, the weather sucked this week - Central City was going through it's annual summer storms.

Two, I had been wondering why they called in a superhero after a mere loser with a gun. The police usually was able to handle stuff like that - unless said loser with a gun was Leonard Snart.

Three, Artemis would probably have punched me in the teeth for flying her up the side of a building without her permission, and no doubt would have strangled me to my death upon learning she had been right about my secret identity all along.

 _KROOKSHHHH!_

Thunder...

The last time it rained this heavily, I was up in my lab after returning from Starling City, soon shot with the bolt of lightning that turned me into the Flash.

I fell back onto my mattress, my blanket bundled around my legs, before I kicked it off completely and got up.

Sleep was impossible. Not with this storm.

4:16 am.

Artemis would still be at the South, or at Caitlin's, dutifully looked after by her protective friends, whereas I, the most capable one of protecting her, was shunned from her life because some jackass in yellow thought it would be funny to scare Artemis and threaten her.

I changed into something work appropriate, and raced through the rain to my forensics lab.

If I wasn't going to sleep, I might as well work on that stupid report that was due two weeks ago, maybe get Singh to finally shut up about it, so at least _one_ aspect of my life was still under my control.

I angrily typed the fifteen pages, printed it out and threw the finished copy on Lake's desk for her to take when she arrived in the morning, before going back to my lab, maybe see if I could get anything on the sword from the museum.

I ran more tests on it in vain - before taking my results to the counter by the window, and resting my head in my hands, frustrated with the lack of answers in this case, the lack of answers in my life.

I sighed deeply, glancing outside as the lightning caught my attention.

I froze, my blood curdling in its veins.

On top of the building standing in front of me was a figure dressed in yellow and black, blazing red eyes, taunting me.

Confused, I watched as the man flew down the building in a quick, liquid movement, red lightning following after him, and he continued waiting for me to react, tantalizing me.

He was more fearful than Artemis's descriptions could ever perfectly entail, and for the strangest reason, memories of him flickered in my head - memories I had not been able to remember in almost 15 years.

Gasping, I raced out of my lab, my own lightning crackling behind me, and found the demon across the street, waiting in a dark ally.

"It was _you_ ," I announced, eyes widening at the monstrous being in front of me, "You're the one at my house that night."

The being's features dark and unclear as he reverberated powerfully, he slowly nodded.

"You killed my mother!" I shouted, the man glinting a smile in response, "Why?!"

 _ **"If you want to know about me,**_ " the demon taunted, his voice low and loud, like words have been formed out of a roar, " ** _You're going to have to catch me."_**

In a burst of red lightning, he quickly disappeared, and fueled by a dizzying combination of my own anger and exhaustion, the need for revenge and pure desperation, I raced after him, chasing through Downtown, feet pounding powerfully against the ground, the yellow speedster being just out of my reach with every step.

Determined to catch him once and for all, I pushed myself to go faster, still to no avail as the phantomish man easily coursed ahead of me, easily charging at quicker speeds than I could ever go.

I sped after him, until he disappeared inside a large, circular building.

Furious, I raced inside after him, and blinding lights powered on, the man standing at the touchdown pole the Central Chargers Football Stadium, myself standing midfield. A mysterious blueish bolt of lightning circled around the bleachers, but I focused on the enemy standing in front of me.

I inhaled, and scowling, chased right into the speedster, and he charged towards me as well.

Upon impact, he easily threw me over with sudden strength, and I tumbled and rolled onto my back after hitting the ground, my system easily wearing away any pain I would have felt.

 _ **"Not fast enough, Flash,**_ " the other speedster declared disapprovingly, standing over me, before racing into the red bleachers behind him. I chased after him once again, bolting after the man in yellow as he ran through the bleachers, through the interior of the stadium, before he turned and easily attacked me in the face before he caught me with powerful arms, and threw me onto the playing field, myself crying out in surprise.

He easily materialized beside me again, and kicked me hard in my side, toying with my weakness, doing so again and again.

"Who are you?" I asked in fear, realizing this was no mere metahuman I could take down easily.

The man smile cruelly as I got up.

 ** _"You know who I am, Barry,_** " he sneered calmly. I tried to attack him, but each attempted blow was dissolved by his own stronger ones, and with unimaginable strength, he began thrusting punches into me, into my face, my throat, my back, my stomach, before picking me up like a doll and throwing me with sudden strength forward, and I tried to get up again, though my body had been beaten into a near pulp.

"I don't know who you are," I finally managed, panting for air as I faced my opponent again, unsure of who he was or what he wanted.

 _ **"Well, you do, Barry. We've been at this a long time,"**_ he replied in his deafening, mechanical voice, _**"But I'm always one step ahead."**_

I rose and threw a fist into his face, hoping I had finally caught him, but he easily deflected me and pushed me away, before disappearing from my sight.

Before I could react, his body flew into my from behind, and he pinned me to the ground by the back of my neck, strangling me from above with cold, stony fingers.

 ** _"It is your destiny to lose to me, Flash, just as it was your mother's destiny,"_** The man whispered hauntingly, _**"To die that night. Just as it is Artemis's destiny to fall by my hand."**_

My hands curled into the plastic grass, and the loud _WHEEESH!_ signified that my attacker had left me, the lights in the stadium disappearing, enveloping me in darkness.

I turned around, leaning on my elbows, and felt hot blood trickling down my forehead and mouth, and panted as I collapsed back onto the grass, overwhelmed by the pain in my body, in my sides, as I accepted the horror of what truly just happened.


	16. A Reintroduction

**[Caitlin's POV]**

"Artemis?" I asked in puzzlement, narrowing my eyes as I watched the young scientist, slightly drenched in rain, enter the Cortex in her usual getup, with black hair neatly tied back, the rims of her dark glasses surrounding her eyes, scarf 'round her neck, white button-up shirt and black dress pants, brown leather satchel carefully hung from her shoulder.

"Morning, Caitlin," she acknowledged with a small, kind smile, as if nothing was wrong.

Indeed - nothing was off about her today, save for the fact that she was carrying _cages_ in each hand - one small, with a white, red-eyed mouse, one with a fluffy brown bunny, twitching its lips as it put its little paws on the bars, taking in its new surroundings.

"Why, uhh," Cisco stammered, putting down his drink, "Why do you have animals?"

"Thought I'd bring some friends over," Artemis joked, winking at Cisco, before strolling away with the animals, up to the chemistry wing of the Lab.

"She's been preparing to transmutate ecfranite into living matter," Dr. Wells replied, smiling at her before facing myself and Cisco, "I don't want to miss this. You both should come too."

"Wait - she's _creating_ life?!" Cisco exclaimed, eyes widened in disbelief, as if Dr. Wells had announced Artemis was joining the circus, not her continuance of her project.

"Artemis is doing what now?" Barry asked, striding in from the entrance tunnel behind us.

"She's testing the ecfranite reaction on animals," I explained with a smile, "We were going to go watch."

"Can I come?" Barry asked innocently.

Dr. Wells pressed his mouth together, and Cisco scratched the back of his head, grimacing, both silently denying Barry's request.

Artemis had the tendency to leave, or politely ask Barry to leave if she couldn't escape herself, if they both were in the same room, or _anywhere_ within proximity of each other.

If Barry strode into her lab to ask if he could watch her work, she'd probably cough up an excuse, and say she wasn't able to conduct the specific experiment at the time, or disappear "to look for a certain fluctuation component in the basement".

To be honest, it genuinely broke my heart to see her willingly avoid him, but after the yellow speedster attacked and threatened her, it was clear to anyone that she feared for Barry's life more than she feared for her own.

Barry understood, but was saddened at Cisco's and Dr. Wells' gestures. He reluctantly gave a nod of his head.

"Here," I offered, smiling as I walked back to a Cortex computer and turning on the security footage, "You and I can watch from the cameras."

Cisco and Dr. Wells smiled and left, and Barry sat next to me at the main desk. We turned on the security cameras in Artemis's lab, where she was gently nudging the mouse into her hand, and stroking the fur on its back, a lump of ecfranite waiting in the influx chamber on the counter behind her.

 _(Hey there, Dr. Frankenstein,)_ Cisco greeted, hands in his pockets as he and Dr. Wells entered the lab, _(Whatcha got there? Your first victim?)_

Artemis gave Cisco an expressionless face as she watched him and Dr. Wells approach her, and she tickled the mouse under its chin, as it playfully scurried around her hands.

 _(Guys, meet Sqeaky,)_ she murmured, holding the mouse out to Cisco, who took it in his hands.

 _(Hey, lil' guy,)_ Cisco crooned, before giving the mouse back to Artemis, who sighed.

 _(I've recalibrated the reaction process so it will be as safe as possible,)_ she started, _(and I've done everything in my power to ensure that nothing will ... go wrong, but -)_

She looked away, dejectedly biting her lip as her eyes fell to the tiny innocent creature wiping away at its milky white face in her palm.

 _(But what?)_ Dr. Wells asked in a kind, fatherly voice, his finger stroking his chin as he did when he was anticipating something.

 _(But I've never been an advocate of testing on animals. And, if everything goes as planned, the mouse won't suffer any side effects,)_ Artemis explained nervously, _(I just... don't know for certain how the reaction will carry itself out - and I don't want to put this guy in there, and be the reason he... dies.)_

Dr. Wells smiled apologetically, and took off his glasses, thumbing the temples in his lap, before looking up at Artemis.

 _(The debate over animal-testing is a long argued one. As someone who has to live with knowing he's responsible for several deaths and ruined lives because of his own ruined experiment, I understand how you feel,)_ Wells murmured, before putting his glasses back on, _(But - but you're not like me, Artemis. You're a meticulously careful person. You're passionate about helping others through your work, and - while I may be impatient with you at times - I have never doubted your confidence, and your abilities. You should do the same.)_

Cisco grinned in agreement - I couldn't help feeling warm and fuzzy; Dr. Wells actually _praised_ Artemis for once - and shrugged his shoulders in a friendly manner.

 _(You turned water into gold - something that has always been deemed impossible,)_ Cisco proclaimed, giving Artemis a genuine smile, _(I mean - I'm convinced you can do anything. Put that mousie in there, and let's see if you conjure up a twin for him.)_

Artemis gave them a small smile in appreciation, and stroked the mouse one last time, before putting him in the second influx chamber and closing him inside, letting him scurry around inside, exploring his new enclosure.

"You think she'll do it?" I murmured to Barry, who was watching intently beside me, "Do you think she'll actually _create_ another living creature with that stuff?"

Barry shrugged carefully, and gave me a nervous look.

"I would say no, that's insane, but I can break the sound barrier with almost zero effort, and that's insane too. Crazy stuff has a habit of happening at STAR Labs."

I smiled at Barry's joke, and he clicked in the camera's control settings, zooming the screen to the point where we could easily see the influx chamber, which Artemis was carefully turning on.

 _(On the count of three,)_ she stated, as her and Cisco began counting together, _(One - Two - Three.)_

At three, she pulled the lever, and the wall dividing the two chambers lifted, the ecfranite breaking down into its raw, nuclear form, carefully sparking as each atomic bond destroyed itself until the white rock no longer existed, and in its place was now an incredible ball of energy. The ball of nuclear matter flushed into the next chamber, attacking the little white mouse, which shrieked and ran around the chamber, trying to run away from its strange nonliving opponent to no avail, as the energy washed over him, consuming him completely.

The ecfranite matter began to burst into phenomenal flashes of bright light, and when the light died down, there were _two_ white mice the cage.

Except one was dead.

Barry and I gasped, and we could hear Cisco and Dr. Wells exclaim in surprise.

 _(What the hell -)_

 _(Ms. Van Kleiss, what happened?)_ we heard Dr. Wells ask, _(Is - is Sqeaky dead?!)_

"Holy," Barry whispered in astonishment beside me. I took the keyboard from him and zoomed out, and we watched in quite anticipation as Artemis put on a pair of anti-radiation gloves, and took out the living mouse, which recognized her and jumped into her hand, cowering in the safety of her thick suede palms.

Artemis brought the mouse up higher in her hand, studying it analytically.

 _(It's - it's Sqeaky,)_ she answered, shocked at her own experiment, _(He recognizes me - he's alive. He's fine!)_

 _(What's the other... thing, then?)_ Dr. Wells asked, pointing to the second white mouse in the cage, which wasn't moving. Artemis turned and acknowledged it, and slipped Sqeaky back in the mouse cage, where he went and dug himself right into the shredding, hiding, lest Artemis run another nuclear test on him.

She then carefully prodded at the other mouse in the cage with her gloved hands. It didn't wake up. She carefully picked it up, and cradling it in both hands, walked it over to one of her counters, where she ran a blood test, assessing it's genome.

 _(This one's Sqeaky too,)_ she exclaimed loudly, reading the results on the computer beside her, _(Except - he's not alive.)_

Cisco knit his eyebrows as he walked over next to her, studying the diagrams on the computer as well.

 _(How do you know this one isn't the real Sqeaky and the other one isn't undead zombie Sqeaky?)_ he mumbled, before turning to Artemis in fear.

Artemis smiled, and pulled up two diagrams of mouse DNA - each looking almost the same, except I could recognize differences in the chemical bonds.

 _(The way ecfranite morphs itself into new material - it condenses its electron energy levels,)_ Artemis explained, pointing at one of the sequences, _(See, this one is exactly the same as the original - it's only difference is the way the atoms have arranged themselves. If I wanted, I could reverse this Squeaky back into ecfranite by reversing the reaction. But the other DNA sample - the real one - has the original electron energy, because it's of a natural born mouse, not my ecfranite copy.)_

 _(It's - it's just a mouse, then,)_ Dr. Wells asserted in shock, looking to Artemis as well, _(You made a mouse.)_

Barry and I looked at each other and smiled - Artemis had stumped Dr. Wells, and whenever Dr. Wells was surprised by something - which he rarely ever was - his reaction was well worth noting.

 _(I - I think I've created an exact, nonliving copy of Sqeaky,)_ Artemis declared, scrutinizing the two models of DNA that appeared on the screen, which were soon followed by two identical X-ray scans and body vital diagrams, _(A copy of the living sample, with the exact same organs, skeleton, health signs, DNA - exact everything, only the ecfranite copy does not have a life force - so I'm not a complete Dr. Frankenstein.)_

 _(Although that would be wickedly awesome,)_ Cisco regarded.

 _(Some things should be left to God, and God alone, though,)_ Dr. Wells added, looking at Artemis, _(Although I agree - this was pretty awesome.)_

Barry turned to me, gaping as something clicked in his head.

"Imagine what this would mean, in the medical world," he murmured, "Organ transplants, blood transfusions -"

"Having an extra set of fully-functionable organs?" I answered, an amazed smile spreading on my own face, "Being able to create as many of them as possible, so long as you have magical ecfranite on hand?"

 _(I'm going to research this further,)_ Artemis announced on the screen, addressing Dr. Wells in confusion, _(Something's not right with the ecfranite... I'm missing a key detail. I can't seem to figure this out.)_

 _(What is it?)_ Dr. Wells inquired, leaning in to see the quantum-mechanical model of two atoms - vankleissium and ecfranite.

 _(The readings from the electron energy levels are strange,)_ Artemis murmured, furrowing her eyebrows behind her glasses, _(They play a more important role in transmutation than I thought. Huh. I'm going to have to work on that. The electronegativity hierarchy shouldn't be so -)_

She quieted down as she muttered to herself, and pulled her research analysis out of her satchel, seated on a chair at her desk.

 _(So hold up,)_ Cisco called, a question in his eyes. He bit his thumb before turning to Artemis, figuring out what he wanted to say, _(Can ecfranite duplicate food? Cuz I hate having to pay for my Cheesies.)_

Artemis pressed her eyes closed, as if she knew this was bound to come, and turned and grinned at Cisco.

 _(So, ecfranite can be made into food, but guess what?)_ She asked, pointing to her garbage can, heaping with bags of Big Belly Burger and excess cans of soda, (The laws of biochemistry prevent successful digestion.)

 _(Pardon?)_ Cisco asked.

 _(Let me put it this way,)_ Artemis clarified, _(Even if ecfranite copies of food imitate the taste, looks, smell, texture of the original, the chemical reactions in your body are not designed to break down compressed, albeit degenerated nuclear bonds.)_

 _(How do you know?)_ Dr. Wells asked, furrowing his eyebrow with concern.

Artemis cringed before putting on a guilty smile.

 _(What can I say? I did some research, tested out a couple experiments, found my results,)_ She described, _(Coincidentally, decided I was too tired to cook myself dinner that same night. Woke up coughing and vomiting my own blood for the next few days.)_

"Eeesh," Barry grimaced, twisting his mouth into a disgusted, worried frown.

I too scowled...

I had noticed that Artemis had way more fast food in her lab than she seemed to buy...

 _(You've been - you've been poisoning yourself?!_ ) Dr. Wells exclaimed, frightened.

 _(I should be fine now,)_ Artemis conceded, holding up her hands in surrender as a tiny smile spread across her face, _(It's okay. Just, to answer your question, Cisco, you still gotta pay for your Cheesies. I have not solved the answer to world hunger yet.)_

 _(Well then,)_ Dr. Wells responded, nodding at Artemis, _(Continue your work. I look forward to nominating you for your own Nobel, one day.)_

Artemis looked up at Dr. Wells, eyes wide in shock, as Dr. Wells smiled at her and turned his wheelchair on his way out, taking one last lingering look at Pseudo-Sqeaky as he left.

Cisco gawked at Dr. Wells, and turned and gave Artemis two huge thumbs up, before he chased after Wells to leave.

In mere moments, both arrived in the Cortex.

"Did you guys see that?!" Cisco blazoned as he ran over to us, "She made another mouse! It was incredible!"

"Do you think she'll make another bunny too?" Dr. Wells asked. I turned and faced Dr. Wells with a curious smile. He was acting a bit childish, but it was quite nice to see him amazed at something. _Nothing_ astounded Dr. Wells.

"You can't blame me, Snow," he clarified sheepishly, "That was... absolutely remarkable."

Barry stood up and nodded, putting a hand to his mouth as he thought out a response.

"That woman is something else altogether," he finally mumbled, his emerald green eyes shining as he smiled awkwardly at us, before excusing himself to go to work.

At the last second, he turned around and strode towards her lab.

"Barry - where are you going?"

"To talk to her."

"Caitlin," Dr. Wells called out, concern written across his forehead, "You may want to go with him."

"Artemarry has been sailing some pretty rough waters these past few weeks," Cisco added, "Better stop them before they sink the ship altogether."

I obeyed and followed after Barry, ready to play peacemaker if needed, and watched as he strolled into Artemis's lab, hands in his pockets as he whistled a sunny tune. He turned and winked at me, and I stood back, watching them from the doorway.

He stopped whistling when he saw Artemis, with her back at him as she stood at her desk, working. Fear-stricken by his arrival, she turned around and faced him before looking away just as fast.

"Hey," she murmured, before turning around, nervously rereading her notes. The plainliness of her simple greeting, combined with her shut-out body language made it clear to see that she was hoping he'd see she wasn't up to talk and that it would hopefully drive him away.

Barry looked around the room before sighing and walking right up to her, surprising her by standing close next to her.

"Whatcha workin' on?" He asked casually, leaning on an arm propped on the table, confronting her.

Artemis paled as she slowly looked at him, before quickly facing her work.

"Oh, nothing," she mumbled nervously, "Just - it's nothing important."

Barry smoothly reached his hand over and closed her notebook, forcing her to look at him.

"You can't avoid me forever, you know."

Artemis clenched her jaw, before she closed her eyes and sighed, facing Barry with a reluctant, but irritated face.

"You think this is a joke, don't you?" She asked in a small voice.

Barry's hand slowly took her own, and he caressed the backs of her fingers with his thumb.

"No," he sighed, "But I don't think avoiding me is going to do anything, either."

Steeling herself, Artemis pulled her hand out of his, and turned away, reopening her notebook.

"Avoiding you is going to keep you alive, you fool," she muttered.

"And it's going to kill me on the inside."

Artemis frowned at his words, and faced him again.

"You really don't get it, do you?" She asked, annoyed, "You're being immature about this. You might not have seen him, you might not have found any evidence on him at the museum, but he's _real_ , Barry. And he's returned. And he could come for you any second. I'm not going to encourage that by showing him that you're important to me."

Barry sighed silently, and Artemis continued, stubbornly.

"He's absolutely demonic, Barry," she murmured, shutting her eyes, rubbing her hand against the crest of her hair, "He's not like any metahuman STAR Labs has dealt with, and we're both in danger from him. Everyone is - he takes away the people we love."

Barry watched her, as she turned to her work again, before he exhaled softly and extended his hand, grabbing her other arm and pulling her in, forcing her to tuck her head under his chin, sighing.

" _Screw_ this," I heard Cisco announce in the Cortex, before I heard him push his chair back and get up, "Y'all are so sweet to each other, and this speedster in yellow - this, this _Reverse_ Flash guy - is just breaking those two apart in more ways than one. I can't watch this."

Sighing in agreement, I turned and focused my attention back onto the couple before me.

"I'm sorry," Artemis whispered in a coarse voice, wiping a nonexistent hair out of her face as she pulled away from him and once again faced her work, and began annotating something in her notes.

Barry leaned in towards her - just close enough for it to still be passable as a friendly distant, yet coolly enough for it to be considered intimate.

"So - now are you going to tell me what you're doing?" he asked in a low, sexy hushed tone.

Artemis quickly perked up, appalled, and she cleared her throat.

"Oh! Umm, see, I'm trying to test for the electronegativity levels and electromagnetic charges using ionic polarization of the different kinds of... transmutational reactions," her stammering slowed to a stop when she turned and saw Barry was watching her, not following along with her work.

Unnerved by him, she blinked and looked back down to her work, skittishly circled something in her notes.

Barry turned around so they both were facing the table, and leaned down so he had his elbow on the table, his finger against his mouth.

"You know - your parents knew what they were doing when they named you after the goddess of the moon," he murmured softly, though he was heard clearly back in Caitlin's lab, "You look stunning today."

"Oooohhhhh snap," Cisco crooned in surprise back in the Cortex, "That was smooth. I'm proud of him."

I exhaled quietly with a smile. Someone had to hand it to Barry. He could be smooth as butter at times.

Artemis was helplessly blushing, and a tiny smile had broken out on her face. She cracked her knuckles, before stepping on her tiptoes to kiss Allen on the cheek.

"Barry - I've missed you," she finally relented.

Smiling nervously at her, Barry roped his arm around her waist and pulled her in, but she quickly countered by putting a hand to his mouth, surprising him as he almost had her.

"We both need to move on," she confessed, removing his arm from her body,"I've - I'm -"

She sighed, and he watched her intently, all signs of smile gone from his face, replaced with a disheartened expression.

"I refuse to engage in anything that will get anyone I know hurt, and to be honest, I've been thinking of leaving Central City for some time now."

I made a small sound in her throat that was something between a mewl and a gasp, unable to believe what she said...

Artemis... wanted to leave?

But she'd only been here for a month!

Dr. Wells would be furious if he found out!

Barry scowled gently, his eyebrows raising in disappointment.

"You - you want to leave?!"

"Yes," Artemis admitted, "To be honest, I hate it here. There's more metahumans here than I can deal with, and you're not lying when you told me they were dangerous."

"Artemis, no," Barry murmured cheerlessly.

Artemis picked up her notebook, collected her papers and slung her satchel from her shoulder. She delicately cupped her hand on Barry's cheek.

"I'm staying for a little while longer though. I - I promised someone here that I would figure out a way to help them," she disclosed, "Once I finish my experiments on the ecfranite and do that for them, I'm out. I haven't told Wells yet, but - but I have no heart to stay here. It's too dangerous for me here, and I don't want anything to happen to you, Cisco, Caitlin, Dr. Wells, or anyone else I care about here."

She sighed as she pulled away, and Barry caught up to her.

"You can't just _leave_ Central City!" He protested, as if he's just hit by the realization that she won't be here.

"But I will," Artemis retorted, rolling her eyes at him.

"Anything we could do to change your mind?" He asked, one tiny sliver of hope revealing itself in the light of his green eyes.

"Of course," Artemis clipped, walking around him to a shelf, "Decapitate a certain yellow and black speedster for me, give me his head on a platter. Then I'll stay."

###

"Well," Cisco yelped, clapping his hands together as I appeared and Barry left to go to work, "A 21 year old is recreating exact copies of living things upstairs, and I'm stuck over here unable to rebuild my magnum arc synthesizer."

"Did it explode again?" I asked, raising an eyebrow at Cisco with a wry grin.

Cisco cringed.

"Only a little."

Dr. Wells joined the both of us and we set back to our own work, myself still uselessly researching ways I could bring back Ronnie while my brain absentmindedly wondered about Barry and Artemis - Artemarry; what can I say? The name stuck - and around noon or so, I forced Artemis from her lab and headed off to Jitters, Cisco staying behind due to a new found strong dedication to his work that overpowered his hunger - his magnum arc synthesizer blew up again in his workshop.

Artemis and I sat alone at a table for four in the restaurant, me sipping my coffee, Artemis her milk (I totally didn't use her unhealthy diet against her to guilt trip her into not getting caffeine... Heh...), when Iris strode into the restaurant and ordered, Barry quickly following in after her.

Beside me, Artemis sighed as she watched, packing up her food in the paper Jitters bag.

"Oh, no,"I chastised, grabbing her arm, "You're not going anywhere."

"Caitlin! You kno-"

"Hey, Artemis. Hey, Caitlin," Iris greeted, sliding into the chair beside me.

Barry soon arrived, and cringed to himself, before carefully taking the last empty seat beside Artemis.

Artemis didn't move, but immediately looked down, avoiding a confrontation with him.

"Hey, guys," I greeted. Artemis mumbled hellos to them, looking anywhere but at the tall man wearing a hurt expression next to her, "What brings you two here?"

"Oh, I'm on my break from the CCPN," Iris explained with a smile, before sighing, "Barry caught up with me outside. Bridges is still losing his mind over STAR Labs, and I'm stuck obeying him."

"Bridges wants a story about STAR Labs?" I asked, small smile playing on my lips as I recalled Artemis's momentous discovery this morning with Squeaky.

"Artemis here," Barry announced proudly, pointing at Artemis with his thumb, "Is making history back there with the ecfranite. Write a story about _that_."

Artemis shot Barry a quick look out of the corner of her eye, before looking away, doing her best not to smile, no doubt swooning inside at Barry praising her.

"Oh, Bridges found out that I wrote that story about her without her permission, and gave me my first and _last_ warning about that," Iris conceded, smiling sheepishly as she sipped her drink, "He'll blow up in a fit of rage if I ask to do the same exact thing again, even if I _do_ have permission this time."

I chuckled, and Artemis silently winked at Iris, before taking a bite of her cookie.

"You know what I really want to get a scoop about?" Iris asked, leaning in towards us, throwing not-very-subtle looks between Barry and the rather shy Artemis sitting next to him.

The duo quickly looked at each other before glancing away just as fast.

"Iris... There's not much to tell you," Barry mumbled sheepishly.

"Well, why not?" Iris questioned, smiling in disbelief, "You two have awesome chemistry! Artemis, why have you been so _resolved_ to stay away from - from this dorky goodness?"

Dorky Goodness blushed and scowled at his stepsister.

"Oh, I don't know," Artemis chirped, before muttering under her breath, "Because of a nightmarish murderer who threatened to kill him."

"What was that?" Iris inquired.

"Oh, nothing," Artemis answered quickly, hesitating before putting a careful hand on Barry's shoulder. Barry looked over at her in worry, "Barry here is... a bit too mature for someone as - as irresponsible and wild as I am."

I stifled a laugh. Aside from her moments of minor outrage at Dr. Wells, Artemis was the living dictionary definition of a goody-two-shoes. There was nothing wild or irresponsible about her

Iris cocked an eyebrow up beside me, clearly agreeing with me.

" _Really_ , Artemis?" She challenged.

Artemis nodded fervently.

"Your idea of 'irresponsible and wild' is nothing more than ranting nonsensically about your experiments," Iris reminded.

Artemis grinned apologetically, and looked down, blushing.

"Seriously - you have no life! You always leave before Eddie and I go out and actually do something fun."

"Oh, well," Artemis stammered, finally conjuring a response to Iris's accusations, "I mean - you two are a couple. It's no fun being third-wheeled by someone. I don't want to disturb your -"

"Shut up and tell me the truth."

Artemis turned to Barry with an expectant, hopeless look on her face.

"Artemis is right - she's too young for me and I just... I just feel old around her," Barry attempted, giving Iris an easy smile. Artemis enthusiastically nodded her head in agreement.

These two were hopeless... I thought to myself.

Iris looked offended.

"You're worried about dating because of a _three_ year age difference between yourselves?" she intoned, not buying it, "Eddie's, like, _six_ years older than me, and nobody cares. I really don't know what to say about this."

"Oh - look - Look at the time!" Artemis stuttered, glancing at her wrist - where there was no watch? - before standing up and pushing her chair back in, "I've got to get back to the Lab!"

I scowled.

"You came here with me. And Dr. Wells never minds us taking longer lunches," I countered.

Barry watched her nervously, no doubt feeling uncomfortable.

"No - my, um, my pet mouse is hungry!" She protested, pulling me out of my chair despite my protests, bewildering Iris and Barry, "Squeaky - he, umm, he's starving! Poor guy! Come on, Caitlin!"

She quickly led me outside against my will, where the summer rain was still falling heavily, before she steeled herself and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath, cold heavy drops matting down her hair, before they sank onto her face.

Ignoring the coldness of the water attacking me, I put my hand to the side of her arm.

"I'm - I'm sorry, Cait," she mumbled, pain apparent in her voice as she closed her eyes, fat drops of water imitating tears where there were none, "I just - I just - Every time I'm with Barry, I can't forget about the yellow speedster, and what he said he'd do to him. I'm - I don't know what to do, and - and -"

She fell silent, and pressed her eyes shut, shuddering as she brought her hands to her face.

"You worry he's going to get Barry," I concluded, though the yellow speedster had _already_ gone after Barry...

Barry? Barry wanted Artemis _closer_ in his life after the attacks - continuously saying he wanted to protect her, that she wasn't safe on her own, wanting desperately to tell her the truth about his secret identity.

He was frustrated by the man in yellow's threats to kill Artemis if she engaged with the Flash, ingeniously trapping them both in the worst and best loophole in history.

Artemis? Artemis pushed Barry away all the _further_ out of fear - and knowing how much they cared for each other only made me pity their situation all the more...

 _Though my own situation wasn't much different... Ronnie had no control over himself, and I was in no position to help him..._

Artemis sighed, and I thought I saw tears glitter at the edges of her eyes.

"Caitlin, Barry has no idea how terrifying the speedster was," she said in a small voice. I put my arm around her, flipping the hood of her coat up, and I led her to my car across the street, watching as Iris and Barry exited Jitters from the car's windows.

Iris rolled her eyes as she exclaimed something in pure frustration at the rain above her, and Barry laughed before throwing her a sarcastic comment, looking gorgeous as ever with the rain soaking his hair and shoulder. Iris slapped him on the shoulder and the two parted ways, Iris to her car, Barry 'to work', though I knew he was actually going to sneak into an ally where nobody could see him and burst into speed when the coast was clear - arriving at the CCPD far dryer, and far faster than Iris would be in her car.

Barry noticed us, and his smile dropped. He gave us a tiny wave before he continued walked in the downpour, silently kicking at a stone in his path.

I pounded my foot on the accelerator, driving the car away from him, Artemis sighing beside me in the passenger seat.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

Barry had a habit of getting me depressed whenever he was around.

And I had told him I wanted to leave the city - no doubt leaving him in a state of edgy heartlessness as well.

Gruffing at our tense relationship, I locked myself up in my Lab, alone with Squeaky and Thumper, mountains of research notes, a catalyst reactor and influx chamber, a cabinet full of deadly vankleissium and another full of ecfranite, and - oh, right! - my heavy heart.

In an effort to not think of Barry, I resolved to reconducting the reactions as well, catalyzing more vankleissium, trying not to think of Barry, scratching in more notes, trying not to think of Barry, solving and deriving more equations, trying not to think of Barry, activating more reactions, trying not to think of Barry, reviewing and double-checking my formulas, trying not to think of Barry, working on solving the electronegativity issue at hand - screw it - I couldn't do anything but think about Barry.

And every moment we had, and how easily we had clicked, and how happy I was around him...

And how easily the monster in the yellow suit - the Reverse Flash? Was that what Cisco called him? - destroyed all of that.

"So, _Squeaky_ ," I called out, looking the little white mouse in his beady red eyes, "What do you suggest I do? Should I try to reason with Barry? Should I hunt down the man in yellow, and ask him if I can buy him a coffee, so we can work out our differences and come to a consensus like civilized human beings? Do you think Barry will mind if I lock him up in the Pipeline downstairs so the Reverse guy won't get to him?"

Squeaky rubbed the back of his white, balloon shaped ears in response.

In the adjacent cage, Thumper was fast asleep, laying on his back with his fluffy white stomach exposed, having eaten his fill of starchy grasses.

I groaned, rubbing my forehead.

I had found myself yet again at the verge of my sanity.

The man in yellow had physically tortured me, warning me to stay away from anything that could get me answers about the death of my parents.

This stupid element wouldn't react the way I wanted it to.

And, as a final insult to my lack of abilities, I was asking a mouse for advice.

I picked up an empty can of soda, and crunched it in angry fingers, before I growled and violently threw behind over my shoulder in a fit of unrestrained fury, buried my face in my hands as I leaned down onto the table.

 _VRRRJJJOOOOOOOMMMMM KRICK KRICK KRICK KRICK KRICK KRICK KRICK_

I quickly turned around, and saw I had accidentally hit the lever of the influx chamber, where I had carelessly left several heaps of ecfranite ore, and had turned the reaction on.

With the chamber entirely open, meaning the chemical was binding onto its own self, exploding in place.

Meaning I had just created the equivalent of a slow nuclear bomb in my lab, set to go off as soon as the rocks disintegrated all of their molecular bonds.

Gasping sharply, I jumped out of my chair, adrenaline powering me as I easily hopped over my desk and sprinted straight for the influx chamber, where some of the element has already been activated and was in its nuclear form, sparking out wildly, and the rest was still disintegrating.

The nuclear half did it's part to explode, binding with everything and anything in its path, and I leaned down, shielding myself, before I managed to freeze the reaction entirely by flipping the lever back up.

"Artemis!" Caitlin cried out, appearing in my doorway.

"Are you hurt?" Cisco asked, showing up beside her, before widening his eyes at my strange lab, "What happened in here?"

Burnt streak marks have decorated themselves throughout the room, across the floor, walls, ceiling, and my cabinets, each pointing in straight, sizzling lines to the influx chamber. Some of the particles had shot across my body too, but I was fine. The light burning sensation would disappear.

In their cages, Squeaky and Thumper have somehow survived, but were huddled in the back corners of their cages, shivering in fear.

"I - the transmutational reaction turned on," I explained, before taking in the sight of the influx chamber, where the decayed ball of nuclear energy was floating in its place, sparking with shades of white, blue, indigo...

That's odd...

Why hadn't it decayed yet?

All of it should have burst in an explosion...

"Are you okay?" Caitlin inquired incredulously.

"Yeah - yeah I am," I answered, stepping closer. I turned around and faced them once more, "I'll be fine, guys. Could you give me a second?"

Both obeyed, and left, confused and upset, and I studied the new, hazy material before me with my tools. The nanoscope came in especially handy - Dr. Wells had given me one, but I had no idea what to use it for. He had said it was to study subatomic particles.

 _Why would I use a nanoscope for that?_ I had scoffed to myself then, _I've got state of the art technology, and an entire world renowned lab at my fingertips. I don't need a stupid nanoscope._

But it was the only tool that could be used to observe the strange stuff left in the chamber.

In an hour or so, I bounded into the Cortex, screaming in excitement.

"Dr. Wells - Dr. Wells - Dr. Wells!" I had shouted, skidding in front of main desk at the Cortex, where he, Caitlin, Cisco - and now Barry, visiting during his lunch hour? - were seated.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, what's -"

"No time to talk!" I cried out, running over behind him and pushing his wheelchair as I ran, "You _have_ to see this!"

Dr. Wells protested the entire way, weak, stubborn cries for me to stop and slow down, knuckles ashy white as he held onto his armrests, and no doubt, he'd resent me for the rest of his life for running at my full speed up to the second floor, stupidly pushing his wheelchair the entire way but this. Was. _Huge_.

Bigger than the Big Bang Theory huge.

Bigger than Darwinist evolution huge.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, have you _lost_ your mind?!" Dr. Wells declared intolerantly, once I had him at the counter where the nanoscope was, "That was unbelievably r-"

"Look inside!" I ordered, as Barry, Caitlin and Cisco joined us.

Dr. Wells paused mid-scold, looked at me for a terrifying second, before sighing and consenting as he leaned forward and looking at the sample of the hazy material within the sample dish of the nanoscope.

"I don't understand," he remarked, looking back at me, "These are just electrons."

"Yes, and no," I answered, turning to the trio behind us.

I jolted over and grabbed two brightly-colored glass balls off of a shelf.

"Cisco!" I shouted.

He whelped in response.

"What am I holding in my hand?" I demanded, presenting the red ball out to him in my hand.

"That's a - that's a model of the vankleissium atom," he stammered, confused.

"And what's this other one?" I announced, holding up the bigger, white ball.

"Ecfranite," Barry mumbled, furrowing his eyebrows in confusion.

"They're the _same_ thing," I proclaimed, grinning crazily.

Everyone looked at each other, before scowling at me, worriedly.

"Um, yeah," Caitlin answered, puzzled, "You told us this weeks ago, Artemis. Ecfranite is the resulting product of vankleissiu-"

"No. No. No. Nonononono. _No_ ," I cut in, walking over to one of my clear whiteboards, where I carelessly erased formulas, equations, differential factors, physics that had taken me a month to solve.

"Someone describe the basic structure of an atom to me," I inquired, frantically searching for the stupid marker. _Where did they go? There were markers all over the place here just yesterday!_

"Well," Dr. Wells replied, "You have your leptons and your quarks to form -"

" _Screw_ your leptons and quarks!" I shouted, throwing over a neatly stacked pile of 600 or so pages of notes, letting them cascade onto the floor, "Give me the basics. Pretend I'm a third grader."

"Because you're acting like one?" Someone murmured.

 _Ouch._

I ignored them and pulled open a drawer.

"A- hah!" I exclaimed, pulling out a marker, before walking back to the cleared board, "Now, does anyone in this stupid building know what constitutes an atom, or _not_?"

"Absolutely ridiculous," Dr. Wells muttered, seething, "You've gone nuts."

I glared at him.

"A nucleus," Barry interjected, distracting me, "In the center."

"Electrons orbiting around the nucleus," Cisco added.

"Protons and neutrons in the middle," Caitlin finished, "Balancing the nucleus's energy, number of protons determines atomic number."

I drew in the particles they named, before giving Dr. Wells a small, crooked grin.

"You're supposed to be smart, Dr. Wells. At least _someone_ here knows what an atom is."

He glowered darkly at me.

Such a kind, loving man.

"Vankleissium has a set number of how many protons?" I asked.

"201," Caitlin answered, "With _that_ many electrons."

"You're right," I answered, shading in the protons of my basic drawing of an atom, "But you're wrong."

"You're psychotic," Dr. Wells voiced.

"Now, now, _Harry_ ," I responded, smiling wryly at him, "I'm getting somewhere. The reason why ecfranite can change phases easily? Because it rearranges the structure of the electron orbits around the nucleus. How does it take on the physical properties of other elements, you ask?"

"Valence electron exchange," Barry answered with an easy smile, "Duh."

"Quiet, smartass," I whispered, grabbing my laptop off the desk and showing them the actual quantum-mechanical diagram I had created, "See here? There is _no_ proper nucleus. And, after running hundreds of tests, I found that vankleissium has no _actual_ set atomic number. My parents assumed it was 201 because that was how many there were in the original samples they had made. But -"

I clicked through several varied diagrams of different atoms of the same element. Cisco gasped.

"But there's thousands. Some atoms have 2 protons. Some have 16. Others have 70. Others have 600. Vankleissium does not exist."

"What?" Dr. Wells gasped, seemingly upset. He turned and looked at the huge shielded glass cabinet in the room, labeled CAUTION: RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS, and looked back at me in disbelief.

I smiled, and opened up a new diagram.

"It's nothing more than a condensed set of electrons," I answered, "The electrons _themselves_ descend to the nucleus, and activate different levels of energy to become protons, becomes neutrons, act as electrons - Vankleissium is nothing more than a condensed heap of supercharged electrons! It oxidizes and reduxes itself! And - and it's toxic and burns the skin because of its insurmountably high levels of negative energy, whereas we, and everything we know, has a balanced energy set."

"Meaning -"

"Meaning my parents didn't invent a new element. They invented a new _electron_ , which can combine with others like it and act as the element itself by manipulating its own energy!"

Cisco bowed his head slightly forward, and dropped his jaw, gawking. Caitlin looked worried, and Barry immediately took my laptop from my desk, and clicked through the different images I had shown, distraught by my claims.

Dr. Wells gulped, and took his glasses off, rubbing his forehead.

I shivered...

 _Was what I said not true?_

 _Did the ecfranite hit my head when it exploded?_

 _Did I lose my mind?_

 _Was ecfranite psychosis a real thing?_

Dr. Wells... brought his hands together in a slow, solemn round of clapping.

"That..." Cisco began carefully, "Literally just -"

"Incredible," Dr. Wells admitted, looking away, shaking his head at me, "You've figured it out. You finally did it, Ms. Van Kleiss."

"Genius," Cisco finally uttered.

"Wait," I challenged with a wicked grin, leaning back on my desk and crossing my arms, "It gets better."

"It can't," Barry murmured quietly.

"It's - Artemis, that's impossible!" Caitlin added, worry knitting her brown eyebrows.

"Do _not_ say that word in front of me," I replied, smirking coolly, "If your own laboratory created a subspecies of humans with superpowers, _I_ can create a new building block of nature."

I turned on the influx chamber, where ecfranite crackled into its sparky ball again, each bond broken and held in place.

"I know how to manipulate the metahuman gene apart," I explained, smiling at Barry, "I can take a metahuman's powers away. Rip the gene away permanently, and replace it with the old one. For _good_."

Barry made a sound in his throat which sounded like a gulp, but nodded in uncanny amazement.

"You can't," Dr. Wells protested in a whisper.

Caitlin nodded at him.

"He's right - you can't just rip a gene from someone's genome sequence -"

I put my finger to my lips, and held out a vial of a dark-purplish liquid.

By teaching Thompson how to control his abilities and condense himself so he wasn't smoke anymore, I had gotten him to solidify to the point where I was able to finally withdraw his blood - a thick dark, murky liquid that smelled of ash, not red, crisp and fluid like the blood of humans.

"What - what is that?" Caitlin asked behind me.

"Metahuman blood," I answered casually, before pulling out a small plastic baggie.

"Um. _Who's_ blood, exactly?" Cisco inquired.

"It's irrelevant," I responded, eliciting confused gasps from Cisco and Caitlin. I pulled out two single strands of hair, carefully encased in plastic baggies.

"This hair belongs to my, um, sample metahuman after the particle accelerator exploded," I described, holding out the other sample, "And this is from before - when they were human. I managed to compare the differences in their genetic sequence, and after careful derivation, I can take out the wrong gene and replace it with an ecfranite copy of the good one."

"Genius," Dr. Wells breathed, eyes shining as if he was watching an enjoyable movie rather than mad science.

Cisco and Caitlin looked at each other with worry, before eyeing Barry, who stood expressionlessly with his arms crossed.

I grabbed the vial of the blackish blood in my hand, and with the other, began tampering with the controls on the influx chamber, ready to show them my science _did_ work.

"While we're on the topic of unrealistic science and metahumans, and stuff that shouldn't be able to scientifically happen," Barry stated, clearing his throat, "I had something to tell you..."

Dr. Wells threw Barry a dark glance.

"Barry," he advised in a soft growl, "You-"

"Artemis," Barry began nervously, "I'm -"

" _Very_ happy to have met you and to have seen the genius, profound work you've done in such a short amount of time," Dr. Wells completed, though his voice had a tensed edge to it - was he warning Barry about something?

Barry turned and gave Dr. Wells a confused, upset look.

"Absolutely. Yeah. It's amazing, that you've figured this out," Barry added, before facing me, "You also figured something else out a long time ago. About me. And the Flash."

"And what could that be?" I retorted, turning around with my back to him, as I continued adjusting the reaction sequence.

"That it's me. And it's always been me. I'm the Flash."

I froze in place, sharp tingles bursting over my back, claiming my spinal cord as their own.

Could it..?

No.

No, it couldn't.

 _Unrealistic science and stuff that shouldn't be able to scientifically happen._

I scoffed dejectedly. Barry was _not_ the joking type. Why would he say something so absurd?

"Barry, if you're going to make fun of my work, you could at least try with something better than insidious foolishness."

"I'm not - I'm-"

"You've told me again and again it wasn't you," I assured easily, though my heart was destroying itself, and I pressed my eyes shut.

 _Oh - okay, Barry._

 _First you annoy me about not talking to you, then you make fun of the profound realness of my work through an annoying lie?_

 _About someone I feared too?_

"I had always thought you to be the honest, gentlemanly type. I never for once figured you could play sarcastic douchebag. Say something as stupid as that again, and I'll build a weapon out of this stuff, and turn it against you."

"Ar - Artemis," Barry pleaded,"It's true. I'm sorry - but it is."

I heard a small, sharp cracking sound somewhere. Glass was breaking.

"Barry -" Dr. Wells tried again. I turned around, my eyesight tunneling in on Barry, who cleared his throat before he began speaking delicately, sensing my fear.

"The dark matter storm hit me with a bolt of radioactive lightning in my forensics lab, and my CSI chemicals exploded on me, and somehow - the combination of dark matter, electricity and the dangerous chemicals all redefined my body. When I woke up from the coma, it felt as if I was a new person altogether. My body could withstand things that can kill humans in instants. You wondered why I'm always hungry? Well, I have to eat 10,000 calories a day in order to fully sustain myself. And I can run at unbelievable speeds. I'm so close to breaking the sound barrier. And I can run on water. I can run straight up the side of a building. I can catch bullets with my bare hands, Artemis," Barry answered solemnly, "The chemical combinations accelerated my immune system, meaning I can heal from critical wounds exponentially faster than a normal human could. I am a metahuman."

I clenched my hands into fists, a sharp headache ebbing its way into my temples.

This couldn't be real.

"Barry - that's enough," I rebuked, fear drying my eyes bare, "Stop it."

"Artemis, it's true," Cisco affirmed solemnly.

"Artemis, there is no other person, hiding from you, who races over to STAR Labs when you're not here," Caitlin continued, "It's Barry. It's always been Barry."

"No," I whimpered, my voice barely above a whisper, "It can't be."

"I warned all of you," Dr. Wells reproached, "I told you not to-"

"Artemis, your hand!" Someone exclaimed.

Distracted, I unwound my tightly squeezed fingers. Black liquid and shards of glass, piercing into the skin of my palm, Andrew's blood smearing across my palm.

I had destroyed the tiny vial of precious blood in my delirious state of shock.

"I can fix that," Caitlin assured, walking over to me. I held up my good hand, forbidding her to come closer, and turned to Barry, unsure of what to say.

 _He had lied to me..._

"You want proof," he deduced quietly.

Tears smiting the outer corners of my eyes, I nodded.

"Allen, don't," Wells warned.

"Don't blink," Barry murmured softly.

I nodded.

 _You were joking._

 _You were messing around._

 _It couldn't be you - you promised you wouldn't lie to me. _

My legs turned to jelly as Barry suddenly disappeared in a shock of lightning to my desk, my eyes watching as he left my desk - the papers all neatly piled up from when I had overthrown them while looking for the marker - before he zoomed over to one of my shelves, disappearing in a spark of crackling energy, leaving my Lab.

The chemicals on the shelf were left organized properly, rather than sitting in the jumble I had become familiar with.

A scared sound escaped my throat as Barry returned, stopping in front of me, holding out a bouquet of flaming pink flowers near my face.

"Oh - shit," he muttered, hitting the flowers against his knee in an attempt to wipe out the fire, the air only increasing the power of the flames,"Shit - shit!"

Cisco swiftly took them from him, and threw them in one of my lab sinks, dousing them in tapwater, steam emanating from the burnt floral-scented mess in the confines of the metal.

I watched in horror as Barry smiled sheepishly at me, scratching the back of his head.

"Yeah, that didn't happen the last time I got you roses," he admitted apologetically, with a small laugh no doubt intended to ease the mood in the room, "But do you believe me now?"

 _The last time I got you roses._

My headache making me dizzy, I recalled an argument I had with Cisco, at the Cloverleaf gym once. Barry had arrived soon after, and he recalled the red roses I had been given by the Flash, decorating my dinner table.

 _"Well, if I am the Flash, then that means I'm also the one who got you those pretty roses," he said, raising an eyebrow at me, "And I'm more than certain we've established what my feelings for you are."_

 _"This isn't about the roses. They mean nothing romantic," I dictated, "And I don't care what your feelings for me are anyway. I care about the fact that now, someone I trusted is also lying to me."_

Barry and I had continued arguing, and he had sworn it wasn't him...

 _"Oh my god. The Cosmic Treadmill."_

 _"What about it?" Barry and Cisco responded in unison, Cisco looking rather worried._

 _"You use it. Oh snap - no wonder it asked for 'desired speed and input'. No fucking wonder you turned it off so easily. You use it. You run on in. It actually is a treadmill," I wondered out loud, "Oh wow. You all have been lying to my face. And I senselessly believed you."_

 _"Artemis -" Barry said, grabbing my arm and forcing me to look at him, "Do you honestly believe - that after everything you've gone through to get here, after everything we have in common about our pasts, after everything we still need to find out about the speedsters who killed our parents - that I would lie to you about something as critical as that - about me being a speedster myself?!"_

"You - you lied," I declared in a broken voice, wiping away a bewildered tear with my good hand, "Why? _Why?_ You told me it wasn't you - You promised you wouldn't lie to me, that I could trust you."

Memories continued washing through my pained head.

 _"How'd you get over here so fast?" I had asked Barry with a laugh._

 _"I was at Caitlin's."_

At Englewood - _"No wonder you guys had set up all that furniture so quickly - You made the Flash do it!"_

 _Barry smiled knowingly in response._

 _"The Flash has been to my home without me knowing?!"_

Days before - the metahuman attack on First Street.

 _Barry had disappeared from the scene completely, and the Flash had arrived taking his place before the Flash disappeared, handing me flowers, and I had found a miraculously injured Barry in the medical wing at STAR Labs, moments later._

 _Dr. Wells, Caitlin, and Cisco guiding Barry through a metahuman attack in the middle of the night, asking me to leave, avoiding my questions._

The movies, with Iris and Eddie:

 _"Just have a little faith in the Flash, alright?"_

 _"What if he's not there? What if we just got lucky those other times when he did show up?"_

 _Barry had gently put his hand over my wrist._

 _"Then have a little faith in me, instead."_

"I'm - I'm sorry. Nothing I could say or do can fully make up for that," Barry admitted, a sad look in his green eyes, "We thought we were protecting you and keeping you safe by isolating you from Team Flash. But we were wrong, and with the man in the yellow suit - the Reverse Flash - out there, you should know that it's me."

A single tear escaped my eye, and traveled down my cheek as I realized something horrible.

"If you're the Flash," I murmured, my headache hammering away in my skull, "Then that means -"

Dr. Wells wheeled his chair closer to me, a worried look on his face. I turned again to Barry, feeling horribly sick.

"Then that means you were the one involved in killing my mother."

Barry looked hopeless and opened his mouth to give an explanation, but any sound was drowned out by the roaring of blood in my ears and the intense pounding within my skull.

My knees died under my legs, and I fainted onto Dr. Wells, who held his arms out for me, Barry, Caitlin and Cisco striding forward to help.

* * *

 **[Barry's POV]**

"None of it was real. She imagined it. The electron matter construed her ability to think, and she had vivid, realistic hallucinations. None of it was real," Dr. Wells repeated in an angry hushed tone, the five of us in the medical wing later, Caitlin nursing an unconscious Artemis lying on the gurney, "That is what you will tell her. Do you understand?"

The three of us nodded.

"And Allen, I had _warned_ you," he exclaimed softly, not wanting to wake up Artemis, "I had told you again and _again_ there would be negative outcomes in involving her in Team Flash, and you blatantly and moronically disobeyed me. _You_ brought this on her, when I had advised against this multiple times, and each time, it escaped your thick little skull."

I exhaled.

Artemis had seemed terrified, watching in a numb, horrified stupor as I had impulsively revealed my identity to her.

What was I supposed to do?

I was at my wits' end with this unscrupulous game of hide-and-seek, and with the Man in Yellow actively searching for us both, I'd never be able to live with myself if anything happened to Artemis, knowing she could have called me for help and I could have saved her.

Caitlin bandaged Artemis's hand, where the vial of Thompson's blood had shattered in her grasp.

I heard a murmuring sound from the gurney.

"She's waking up," Cisco announced, as he stood by the side of her bed, Caitlin at the other side, myself at her feet.

"You know what to say," Dr. Wells whispered one last time, as Artemis pushed herself up on her elbows before sitting up straight, her good hand at her forehead.

"Hey," Caitlin cajoled, putting her hand on Artemis's back, Artemis facing her, fear in her brown eyes, "We found you in your lab, passed out. Apparently some of the ecfranite tried to transmutate on itself somehow, and it exploded."

"Yeah, when we came to get you, you were knocked out cold," Cisco described, reaching over to give Artemis a caring squeeze of her hand.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, how do you feel?" Dr. Wells asked, wheeling himself beside Caitlin. He placed a hand over her other one, giving her a genuine look of worry, "You had us all terrified."

Artemis began to answer, but she turned and faced me, disbelief playing in her eyes as she studied my figure.

"See, when I told Eddie you had ecfranite psychosis," I joked, though I felt horrible inside, "I was just messing around. You gotta stop taking things so literally, kiddo."

God, the feeling of dismay swarming through me, weighing my morale down, felt so sickeningly horrible.

"What are you talking about?" she finally said, narrowing her eyes at me.

 _Tell her the truth, Barry,_ my conscious pressed. _Tell her again. She needs to know..._

"Ms. Van Kleiss, you were talking in your sleep," Dr. Wells explained seriously, letting my morale plummet even further as Artemis turned to him, "You appeared to have imagined that - that _Barry_ , of all people, was the Flash."

Artemis turned to me, and scowled.

"I imagined it?" She asked incredulously, her expression upset, "But it felt so real. It felt real."

"See, that's where we call the doctor in," Caitlin answered, giving Artemis a small smile as she put her hand at her shoulder, "The types of energy you were working with - you appeared to have discovered a new kind of electron - appear to have the abilities to mess with your brain, inducing lifelike hallucinations. What you may have seen may not be what happened in real life."

Artemis glared at her for a second, before her expression melted and she sighed, rubbing her face with her hands, before she noticed one of her hands was bandaged.

"What happened to my hand, then?" She asked, fretfully, "If - if I _imagined_ the vial of blood breaking, what happened to my hand?"

"The glass on the influx chamber broke," I answered quickly, "And you tried to reach for it when stopping the explosion."

"Yeah," Cisco affirmed, "We think you cut your hand along the shards of glass."

" _Glass_?" Artemis inquired, astonishment tinting her voice, "But the influx chamber isn't made from glass."

We fell silent, and watched as Artemis scratched her arm, murmuring.

"I used a palladium alloy. The same stuff used to build the chambers in the particle accelerator," She answered, "I wouldn't be so stupid enough to contain raw nuclear energy in glass. And the palladium is indestructible. From - from what I remember, the influx chamber was _open_ when the reaction went off, and I tried to turn it off using the control lever. I'm not stupid. What did I break my hand on?"

Effectively silenced, we all looked around at each other, hoping someone would come up with an excuse.

"We have a licensed doctor, an expert crime scene investigator, one of the smartest physicists in the world, and a prodigy mechanical engineer in the room," she stated, "And _nobody_ can figure out what broke and busted my hand?!"

"Artemis, I'm sorry," I tried, "I can go back and check to see what happened."

"No need," she answered, throwing the blanket off of her legs as she got off of the gurney, "Dr. Wells, if it's okay, may I take the rest of the day off? My head hurts. A lot."

"Caitlin should really look after you," he responded, "We don't know what kinds of effects the matter-"

"I'm fine," Artemis snapped, slipping her feet into her shoes, "And I'd like to leave."

Dr. Wells quietly nodded her head. Artemis pulled away and left the medical wing, grabbing her lab coat off of Caitlin's counter, before she passed me, giving me a dark scowl.

She placed her hand on my bicep, angling me to the right as she studied me, frowning sadly.

"It can't be you," she murmured, before getting her car keys and leaving, "You'd never lie to me."

###

"Allen!" Lake growled, entering my lab without permission, followed by Singh.

Uh-oh...

She walked over to me, at my desk, and threw down a thick packet of papers.

"Barry, what is this nonsense?" Singh questioned sternly, hands at his hips, "First you take the morning off without logging in with Lake, then you give me _this_?"

"It's my report for last week, sir," I conceded, picking up the papers, reading my name and title across the top.

"Yeah. I know," Singh answered, unamused, "Why don't you read it to me?"

I flipped through the pages, unsure of what was wrong.

"It's about the speedster attack at the museum, sir," I answered.

"Yeah," Lake challenged, "And where are your records about the string of robberies in Lawrence Hills?"

"Or the potential child molestation in Chubbock?" Singh added.

"And the break-ins at the high school in the South?"

"Why would I need to write reports on those?" I asked carefully, "We _found_ those suspects. We have no idea who this speedster was."

"Okay, okay," Singh conceded sarcastically, "I get where you're going with this. Speedster. Important. Thugs with machine guns rampaging through the streets, no so much. Yeah. Alright. So tell me - did you find anything on him?"

I cringed.

"N-no, sir."

"So why'd you give me fifteen pages of nonsense bullshit about a decorative sword?" Lake questioned, annoyed, "Just because the victim was your little girlfriend doesn't mean you can ignore the other cases altogether."

She snatched my report from my hand, and tossed it in the recycling bin.

"Sir - that was the biggest case last week," I pointlessly argued, facing Singh.

He sighed, and pinched the skin between his eyes.

"Okay - fine. I'll let it go this time," he managed, "Where's your report for _this_ week, then? Your pet dog ate it?"

"I don't have a pet d-"

"Two late reports. Two weeks in a row," Singh concluded, irritated, "You'll give me both reports by tomorrow morning or you're stuck with garbage duty for the rest of the year. I can't afford to pay both a lazy CSI and a lazy trash collector."

"Sir, no-"

"And you're on dispatch duty tonight."

"What?" I asked in disbelief.

"Sally's taking the night off. She's actually been hard at work, unlike some _other_ people here -" he narrowed his eyes at me, "You're covering her shift as Emergency Dispatch Operator tonight. You can work on your reports while waiting for 911 calls. You'll have all night to do so, you know."

With that, Singh turned and left.

I leaned back in my chair and sighed.

Today kept getting better and better.

Artemis wanted to leave the city, then she had a nervous breakdown when I told her I was the Flash in order to convince her to stay, now she thought I _wasn't_ the Flash, and to top it off, I got to stay up all night answering 9-1-1 emergency phone calls.

I was unable to contain my excitement.

Disappointed, I went down to the first floor to get a rundown of anything else I might have missed at the other cases, when I stopped. Artemis was there, talking to Joe about something. Joe nodded and thanked her. She slipped her necklace off of her neck, and removed one of the keys. I stepped closer, trying to overhear.

"This is actually the last key," she murmured, placing the key into Joe's hand, "And nobody has been in the house since they closed the investigations."

"What's going on?" I asked, confronting the two of them. Joe looked over at me.

"Oh - you already know I opened up your mother's case," He explained, "And, given these...recent... events, it's crystal clear that your mother's case and Artemis's are connected. I'll be investigating the Van Kleiss home back in Cambridge to see if I could find any other evidence."

Artemis crossed her arms and nodded, giving me an expectant look.

"Wait," she murmured, realizing something, "Did you find anything at Barry's old home?"

Joe sighed.

"No," he lied, "All evidence was destroyed when the new residents moved in. We couldn't find anything."

"Oh," Artemis answered, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, scowling lightly, "That's not good. Well, I hope you get something at my place then. Thanks, Joe. See ya, Bear."

"Wait," I called, stopping the woman in her tracks by catching her wrist. She slowly turned around and faced me, waiting for an answer.

"I - Did you want to, um - where are you going?" I stammered, unsure of what exactly I wanted to do.

Singh had me imprisoned here at the CCPD. Would Artemis care to sit up with me in my lab, help me type up a report about boring cases?

 _Heck - we'd probably have fun doing so. Anything was fun when Artemis was around._

Even if I was lying to her pretty, unsuspecting face...

"I have to go see someone," she answered solemnly, "I'm sorry. I've had this planned for a few days."

"Allen!" Lake called behind me, glaring murderously at me, "No dates until you get us your fucking reports in! Go back to your lab!"

Joe raised an eyebrow at me.

"Again, Bear?"

I smiled sheepishly, and Artemis grinned.

"I'd help you with your homework, but I prefer _unrealistic_ physics to criminals," she answered, smiling apologetically, "Sorry, Sunshine."

I sighed deeply and gave her a fist-bump, before we parted ways.

"When are you going to her old place?" I asked Joe.

"Tonight, actually?" Joe replied, uncertain, "Briggs gave me a deadline of four days to come back. I don't know - I'll see."

"Allen! You want me to tell Singh you're still kissing ass?" Lake yelled.

I sighed out loud, and left to my office, where I was taxed with two lengthy (boring) CSI reports and a night's worth of answering 9-1-1 calls.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

"So how'd it go?" Andrew asked, smiling innocently as I entered his hideout in the slums, drenched in rainwater, "Did my blood go back to normal?"

I froze in surprise at his words, as if someone had suddenly poked me in the eye.

"Artemis?"

I set my satchel down, and kneeled on the floor, searching through my bag.

"This doesn't make any sense!" I gasped, "Where is it? It should be here!"

"What?" Andrew asked, kneeling in front of me.

"The blood sample - it should be here!" I cried, frantic, "I - I hallucinated running the transmutation reaction on it, but that never happened, so it should still be here! Where is it?!"

"Woah - woah - _woah_ ," Andrew exclaimed with laughter, smiling kindly as he pulled my bag away from me, "Slow down. What happened?"

"I - I -"

 _I didn't believe a word of what STAR Labs had told me, when I regained consciousness._

But it was the only sensible explanation.

"I accidentally turned on the influx reaction when the chamber was open, and the ecfranite partially exploded."

"Um, wow? Were you okay?"

"Caitlin - she's the doctor at the Lab - said I knocked myself out, and the negative energy of the ecfranite structure induced hallucinations by messing around with my mind."

"You said you _hallucinated_ working on my blood sample when you knocked yourself out?"

"I - no, I crushed it in my hand."

Andrew gave me a worried look, and taking my hand in his solid gray one, got me up to my feet, and walked me over to the couch.

"You imagined you crushed the vial of my blood in your hand?" He corrected in a faint voice, seating me down beside him as thunder crashed outside.

"I'm - I'm sorry," I broke out, overridden with guilt as I tried not to cry, "We spent almost a month trying to get you to control your powers, and when we finally got you to solidify enough, I lost the sample."

"Hey - hey," Andrew mumbled, putting his arm around me, holding my head in a brotherly manner against the crook of his neck, "It's okay. We can easily get another."

I sniffled, and pulled away, and he dropped his ghostly hand onto mine.

"What happened to your hand?" He asked, taking it into his, caressing the bandages.

"I - I honestly have no fucking idea," I answered, clearing my voice, "The only explanation STAR Labs gave me was that I cut it on the chamber. But the chamber is indestructible."

"And you imagined breaking the glass vial?" He asked.

I nodded.

"What - what _exactly_ did you hallucinate?" He inquired, voice full of concern, "Like, giant floating elephants and cotton candy bouncy houses, or - or legit stuff?"

"I wish I knew which category applied," I retorted, breaking into a smile, thankful for Andrew's kindness, "I, um, imagined that I discovered a new subatomic particle that explained how ecfranite worked, and that my friend Barry admitted he was the Flash. Then I ... kinda passed out from shock... Caitlin said that the ecfranite created really vivid images, though, so -"

"Caitlin's not the one working on ecfranite," Andrew interrupted, worry in his hazy gray eyes, " _You_ are. How would she know of it's neurological effects in such a short amount of time?"

I paused, listening to my own breath, before looking up at him.

"Does that mean that what I thought I saw... was real?" I asked, though I already was beginning to wonder if I knew my answer.

"Wait - you said Barry tried to tell you he was the Flash?" Andrew questioned solemnly.

I nodded.

"Yeah - if it wasn't for that happening, I would _never_ have believed Dr. Wells telling me what happened was in my head."

Andrew looked away, not responding, before he gave me a shy smile.

"So, you need another sample of -" he suddenly fell still, his eyes narrowing as he looked at nothing in particular. I've recognized this reaction. He can sense electrical signatures in the air, and acts this way whenever there was an odd disturbance in local atmospheric pressure.

There was a storm outside, explaining why he'd been restless these past few days.

But today - his fear seemed much more acute, more grave. Dread shown through his ghostly eyes.

"Something's not right," he whispered, looking fearfully at the door to his room.

"What is it?" I murmured, looking at Andrew, who seemed resolved on something.

"A speedster," he answered softly, "I can sense the lightning. It's in the building."

"Is it the Flash?"

Andrew gave me a worried look, not answering my question.

"You should stay here. I'll be back soon - I might be wrong."

With that, he turned into a puff of smoke, disappearing completely from the room.

Shivering, though not from cold, I wrapped my coat closer around myself, and counted the seconds as they passed, waiting for Andrew to return.

One minute went by. I heard nothing but the storm outside.

Two minutes. Then five.

Should I go down there? What was down there?

Could Andrew take whatever it was down?

Almost as if to answer my question, I heard a teenage boy's tortured scream, piercing the damp air with hot terror, before I heard a body thump to the floor - only a few floors below me.

 _Andrew..._

Inhaling, I slowly walked over to the desk, and pulled out a gun I had bought for Andrew to keep in case he got in trouble, hoping the drawer wouldn't make any noise as it closed. It screeched loudly, and I cringed, before turning off the lights to the office and entering the dark staircase, holding the gun with both hands.

"Andrew?" I whispered softly, though I knew it was of no use.

I passed through two or so stories, frightfully walking down the stairs, until I arrived at a floor completely engulfed in a familiar smoke.

 _No._

Scared, I entered the floor, finding myself in a fully furnished, abandoned apartment - reminding me of the haunted houses I'd visit as a kid, haunted by harmless pretend ghosts.

 _But where was my harmless ghost?_

I heard a crackle of lightning.

But it was loud.

And clear.

It came from indoors, I realized frightfully, remembering what Andrew had said about him sensing a speedster.

I turned around, finding myself facing the horrifying man in a scary yellow suit, contoured at the torso, phasing to black as it reached his feet, red eyes burning like hot coals.

The yellow speedster.

He dropped something heavy at my feet.

A gray, phantomish body, familiar head of grayish hair, kind eyes closed, mouth hanging slightly open -

A hole straight through his chest.

"Andrew," I whimpered, hot tears overtaking my eyes as I sat down at my oppressor's feet, touching Andrew's face. He was already dissipating into smoke, my fingers touched hazy gases instead of a tall, handsome young phantom of a boy.

I looked up at the bright, ghostly yellow speedster. At his evil, blazing red eyes. At the glint of a snicker on his dark mouth. The ominous red lightning bolt on his chest, surrounded in a black emblem.

 ** _"I'll give you a head start before I come after you."_**

Hot, salty tears sprung down my cheeks, and I turned and ran, stumbling, trying to find someplace to hide from the murderer laughing cruelly behind me. Foolish and desperate, I jolted into a bathroom, tucking myself into the dirty tub and uselessly pulling the moldy curtain across the rod, adrenaline turning my breathing unsteady.

I heard footsteps outside, saw a shadow under the doorway, before it passed.

He was toying with me - he knew I was in here.

Heartbeat skyrocketing and washing me in icy fear, I pulled my phone out of my pocket with shaky fingers, and panicked as I dialed 9-1-1.

 _(Central City Police Department,)_ a bored, musical voice answered, _(What's your emergency?)_

"I -" I was at a loss for words, before something struck me. I - I _recognized_ that cordial, male voice, "Barry?!"

I heard a rustling sound, as if he dropped something, or jumped out of his chair.

 _(Artemis?!)_ He gasped, _(Where are you? What's going on? Are you okay?)_

Outside the dark walls of the bathroom, I heard a low, mechanical laughter, followed by thunder.

"I - I can't - I can't explain," I whispered, as I shook in fear, words stuttering out of my mouth on their own, "I - It's the speedster, Barry."

 _(Where are you?)_ Barry demanded grimly, _(Tell me the address.)_

"The South," I gulped, "The slums. At - at the corner of Ashbury Street and Livermore Lane."

 _(I'm on my way,)_ Barry answered easily.

"What! No - Barry! You can't come on your own! Send the police!" I murmured, whimpering, "It's - it's the man in yellow!"

No response. Barry's dropped the line already.

 ** _"How touching,"_** a growling, demonic voice chastised. Startled, I slowly turned around, and saw the being in yellow phase through - _phase through?!_ \- the deteriorating wall, rip the curtain off of the metal beam.

Not thinking clearly, I pointed the gun in my other hand at him, and pulled the trigger. Every single bullet went right through him, as if he was just a vibrating hologram. Mixed with a combination of fear and shock, the gun fell from my shaky hands, and the yellow ghost in front of me whipped his hands onto my neck - which was still in the process of healing from his last attack weeks ago, and walked with my head in his hand.

 _ **"Although I really should thank you,"**_ the speedster remarked, throwing me head first onto the floor, **_"You've lured Barry right to me. He's almost here."_**

Barry couldn't come here.

I prayed that anything would stop him - the weather, his heavy workload, sensible cops, an untied shoelace.

I cowered, ineffectively trying to get away from the yellow and black demon behind me as I battled double vision and the pain in my head, but he effortlessly towered over me, easily stepping closer to me with his muscular black legs as I struggled to get away, the red fury in his eyes turning harsher.

"I'm going to murder you if you touch him," I announced stubbornly, though I realized how stupid that sounded. I had no power against him, whoever, _whatever_ he was. I caressed my sore neck as the speedster got down on one knee, one hand vibrating menacingly in threat. I gulped and tried to speak up.

"You're - you're not going to get away with this."

 ** _"I already have,"_** the man responded with a small laugh, quickly striking me in my black eye, sending intense, excruciatingly painful pressure into the firm ball of flesh and into my skull before the window exploded.

Pain pulsating through my brains, I barely made out the form of a tall, crimson-colored figure with a white emblem on his chest.

 _No._

No, no, no, no, no, I thought, as the yellow speedster picked me up by the shirt, my head wobbling on my weakened neck.

The Flash had arrived.

They were both going to kill me together, just like they had killed my mother.

 _"Let her go,"_ the Flash ordered in his echoing voice, _"It's me you want."_

What?

 _It's me you want?_

The ugly yellow speedster snickered darkly as he stood up, holding me by the collar of my shirt, my body sprawled on the ground beside him, wanting to pass out.

 _ **"And give up the chance to kill you both together?"**_

The Flash shouted unintelligibly in response, and a bright yellow streak of lightning attacked the yellow speedster who became surrounded with his own red lightning, attacking his opponent with equally fast blows, following by bright red lightning, the Flash leading him away from me as they fought.

He did this to let me get away, I realized, though I couldn't get up.

There was a sharp pain in the side of my waist, where my hipbone was.

My entire left leg was unable to move, was swarmed in tingling pain.

Sprained, possibly fractured.

 ** _"You'll always lose to me,"_** the man in yellow crooned in his roaring voice, the Flash being dealt an onslaught of excessively powerful punches, kicks, jolts.

He wasn't winning...

Turning, I saw the dusty remains of a porcelain lamp on the table a few feet away.

The two speedsters fighting around the room, the Flash leaving a wide berth for me, I flipped over to my stomach and did my best to crawl on three limbs, left leg following dead behind me. I groaned - my chest, head and neck hurt badly, as does my side, along with the numbness overtaking my hip and entire leg.

Was I stupid?

Yes.

Would I die?

Yes.

Did I care?

I wasn't quite sure at this point...

I reached up with unsteady fingers, and tried to grasp the lamp, pulling myself up from the table. The lamp wasn't that big - about as big and heavy as a textbook. I retrieved it and set it behind myself.

"Hey - hey, _Homer Simpson_! You - you oversized minion!" I called out stupidly, "Yeah, you! Banana-Face? What's the matter, Big Bird? Lost your way back to Sesame Street? Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?!"

The other speedster stopped whacking away at the Flash's throat and turned to me in mild surprise.

"God, that is such a _hideous_ shade of yellow!" I raved, wincing as my sides ached, hoping there was an asylum in heaven for idiots like myself, "What - did you paint your suit with your own _snot_ , or something?"

 _"What are you doing?"_ The Flash asked, bewildered, as he tried to fend his opponent away.

Big Bird? Homer Simpson?

Oversized minion?

Why don't you pick on someone your own size?!

He was picking on someone his own size! - _I was sitting bait!_

 ** _"You and that foolish mouth of yours,"_** Snot Suit muttered, sharply kicking the Flash in the gut, leaving him on his knees, before he sped over to me - his terrifying face right in mine.

A knife-like hand punched me quickly in the stomach and throat, surprising me and debilitating me, before some sliver of adrenaline mustered its way into my arm and smashed the lamp in his face - ineffectively.

The blow stunned him - surprised him was more like it - albeit temporarily, and he smiled as if he was amused by my feeble attempt to take him down, distracted by me, before the Flash ran into him like a bullet, throwing him to the side, the red speedster huffing.

 _"Go!"_ He ordered, rubbing his red-sleeved arm, _"Now, Artemis. You need to leave!"_

 _ **"Everyone you know will die if you leave my sight, Van Kleiss,"**_ the yellow monster roared, bursting into faster, angrier vibrations as he threw a heavy blow right into the Flash's jaw, the latter stumbling backwards, before he collapsed onto the floor, not far from my feet.

"No!" I shrieked in fear, even though I didn't know the guy.

The Reverse Flash faced me with that hideous smile - and I shuddered. The last time I had seen that exact, dark curl of those lips was - was on the night my mother died, those mini-suns in his eyes lighting up harshly.

The yellow being raised his leg behind him and immediately brought it right into my forehead, and I fell backwards, my head hitting the ground heavily in impact.

A few feet from me, the Flash tried to get back up, before falling again, his own weakness overtaking him.

The Reverse Flash laughed - an ugly, satanic roar that made me want to die.

 _ **"Pitiful. You both are pitiful. Enjoy deat-"**_

My left eye soar, pain throbbing acutely through my brains, I barely managed to see a fat plume of sick-scented smoke spiral right into the yellow demon's face and torso, the power of the fumes forcing him back.

My head was hurting too much... I couldn't breathe all of a sudden, and my chest was in searing pain... My eyes wanted to close themselves, and I was tired, and exhausted from it all.

The Reverse Flash cowered, and the Flash managed to get up.

"Leave! Get her out of here!" A voice that sounded like Andrew's yelled, "I can hold him off!"

 _"You- you're alive?!"_ The Flash shouted.

"I'm made of plasma and smoke. A hand through my chest isn't going to do shit to me," Andrew answered, shooting powerful beams of gas into our opponent, "I played dead because I thought he was searching for me. I didn't know he was here for you two."

The Flash gaped at the boy, who easily took the Reverse Flash down, had his opponent's back to the wall now as he choked at Andrew's mercy, and Andrew wasn't backing down.

"Get. Artemis. _Out._ Of. Here," Andrew seethed, shooting a small beam of air at the Flash, startling him onto his feet.

Headache splitting immensely, my good eyelid feeling heavy, my other eye practically blind, I could feel a pair of arms hook themselves underneath me, picking me up bridal style, before I finally fell unconscious - the last thing I saw in the living room being Andrew - an _alive_ Andrew - back up on his ghostly feet, shooting smoke right into the speedster stumbling in front of him, who was unable to breathe in face of the thick curls of toxicity.

The headache, the powerful sore in my eye, the bruises on my neck, the searing pain in the side of my waist - they all won in the end, and I blacked out, feeling nothing but air rush past me, arms curled under me, holding me tightly against a strong torso.

We cut through the wind like a knife in butter.

###

When I opened my eyes, darkness came. There was no moon. Clouds hid the stars. The contours of everything became hard to distinguish as the world raced past us. Everything disappeared - the slum building, the city, the yellow speedster, Andrew, my own body.

The world was quiet and I couldn't hear anything, so I couldn't even ground myself in sound.

All I felt was the wind, as I was carried in the red-sleeved arms of my savior, my body tight with gripping, searing pain.

The rush of air slowed down, and I could tell we were running into STAR Labs, until only milliseconds later, we stopped, and we were in the Cortex, near the medical labs. The Flash gently set me on my feet, but I cried out - my left leg was in too much crushing pain for me to stand, and he quickly steadied me, letting me hold an arm around his shoulders to support myself.

"Artemis!" Caitlin cried out, jumping from her seat at the main computers to run over to us.

"What happened here?" Dr. Wells demanded, Cisco arriving at us as well.

 _"The man in yellow found her in the South,"_ the Flash answered.

Pain throbbing in my head and body, and my left eye feeling as if it had been gorged through, Oedipus-style, I faced the Flash, panting as I tried to keep tears back.

"We - we have to go back," I stammered, voice watering with silent cries, before I winced again. The Flash adjusted his hold on me so I wasn't leaning on my legs so much, "We - Andrew -"

 _"Andrew will be fine,_ " the speedster responded, his facial features blurring so he was unidentifiable, _"Trust me."_

"No," I whimpered. Had I really just left my friend alone in the slums with a monster?

 _"He's braver than you give him credit for,"_ The speedster conceded in his echoing voice, _"He's going to be okay. He's made of smoke - physical blows won't kill him. You need to let go of me."_

"No - please go back."

"Artemis?" Caitlin called out in a voice full of concern, holding her arms out to receive me, "You need medical attention. You're severely injured."

The Flash tried to let go of me and hand me off to Dr. Snow, but I clung to him.

Andrew was all alone.

And Barry -

Barry!

"No! No - we need to go back! Andrew and Barry..."

" _Barry?_ " The speedster asked with worried curiosity.

"I - Barry - he's such an _idiot_ ," I finally managed, eyes pressing closed.

 _"What, um, what happened to Barry?"_

"I - I called the cops for help, and he answered, and he told me he was coming, and I tried to tell him to get the police but I think he left on his own to come get me - please, we have to go back and stop him before the man in yellow finds him!"

"Oh god," Cisco mumbled, "I'm not sure if I should cry or get my video camera..."

"Artemis, Barry's okay," Caitlin assured, "You don't need to worry about him."

"And let him get _killed_? Where is he? Do _any_ of you know where Barry is?" I demanded, before turning to the faceless speedster again, "Thank - thank you for coming to save me, really - but if you're _half_ of the hero that everyone says you are, you're going to go back and save my friend before the man in yellow finds him."

"Ms. Van Kleiss," Dr. Wells tried cautiously, taking off his glasses to reveal old, blue eyes washed with anxiety, "Barry is fine. Trust me. Let Caitlin help you."

Caitlin and Cisco tried to pull me away from the Flash, but I pushed them away and cringed again - the pressure in my head, the pain in my leg...

"Go back. _Now_ ," I demanded, sobbing, "I want to know where Barry is. You - you don't know him like I do - he's an insistent little fool. He - he told me to call him if I ever got in danger, and I purposely call the police - he's just human, what could he do? - and somehow he answered my 9-1-1 call, and the little... the little dork told me he was on his way. You have to go back and check up on him."

"Flash?" Dr. Wells asked, raising an eyebrow, "Maybe you should leave. Go bring Barry here to show Artemis he's okay."

"Listen to him. Please," I pleaded the speedster, panting as I ran short of breath, whimpering, "If you were _half_ the hero Barry is, you'd stop at nothing to go save him. Why won't you go? Why _won't_ you go?"

The speedster sighed, and the little buzzing sound he was making by vibrating his face stopped, and his features were clearly defined for once - a red cowl hiding everything on his face save for the fronts of his cheeks, his mouth, the tip of his nose and his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Dr. Wells," he said, speaking in a familiar male voice instead of the loud, echoing one, his tone edged with defeat as he faced the scientist, watching us tensely, "I - I really can't do this anymore."

I froze, and stopped my incessant whimpering, as my ears perked up.

That voice...

Words caught themselves in my throat, and I watched in profound horror as the speedster's free hand rose up to his face in an easy, liquid movement, the fingers curling underneath the pieces of the cowl under his eyes, and pulled it all the way back.

A head of dark copper-colored hair.

A familiar, angular face, signature cheekbones.

Clear green eyes.

Attractive, thin lips curled in downward in a worried grimace.

"Barry..." I murmured, as confusion fleeted through me, amplifying my headache, "No - no, this can't be. It's - it's just a costume. It's not you-"

He looked at me with apologetic eyes.

"I told you I was on my way, Artemis."

###

So, apparently I passed out again, because when I woke up, I was lying on the gurney yet again in the medical lab, Caitlin carefully placing a brace around my swollen neck, a fat pack of ice pressed against my worn-out eye.

"She woke up," Cisco stated, and all eyes fell to me, replaying the scenario from earlier today. Caitlin returned and stood by me, and Barry and Dr. Wells, who were seated near the door, approached my bedside.

"Don't try convincing me it was a hallucination, Wells," I muttered, crying out as I tried to sit up straight. Electricity shot from my foot up to my left side.

"What's wrong?" Caitlin asked kindly.

"My left leg," I managed, pressing my eyes shut as I attempted to move my numb, painful limb.

Caitlin looked down and prodded at the left side of my waist with careful, nimble fingers, before slipping her hand underneath me and kneading the area at the base of my back.

"Oh," she murmured, "You've dislocated your hip. Cisco, Barry -"

Understanding her unspoken command, Cisco and Barry jolted to either side of mine, and pinned me down by my arms as Caitlin attentively placed her careful hands around my waist, before quickly pushing down with painful precision, and an audible _Crick!_

"Aaaaahhhhh!" I cried out, digging my nails into Cisco's and Barry's biceps as I let out a long, unforgiving string of curses.

"God - my arm!" Cisco protested, wrenching his arm out of my iron grip as both he and Barry got up.

"Wiggle your toes," Caitlin ordered, and I obeyed, breathing hard as I found myself sitting up, pain no longer present in my numb leg.

"Thanks, Cait."

"No problem, Artemis."

She nervously stepped away and I studied the people in the room with me, all watching me with a curious fear, as if I was a lion sitting in a room full of chickens.

Caitlin, gently biting her lip as she watched me, absentmindedly removing her latex gloves.

Cisco, studying me with concern, as if he didn't know what to say.

Dr. Wells, his expression harsh and unforgiving as ever, though now touched with hints of worry.

Allen, arms crossed against his chest, now redressed in the same clothes he had been wearing when I had visited the police station, avoiding eye contact with me.

I trusted all of these people, and they _all_ lied to me...

"Well, well, well," I muttered sarcastically, a glower setting into my good eye, "Get a job at STAR Labs, they said. It'll be fun, they said."

Everyone looked to each other in uncertainty, no doubt distraught by my reaction.

"Fuck your stupid lab, and fuck your stupid city," I murmured, breathing turning shaky as anger washed through me, blood roaring with the pain in my head, left eye blind.

"You -" I demanded, gesturing with an impatient finger for Barry to come forward and sit himself by me. He hesitated, but obeyed.

"Artemis," he attempted, sitting by the edge of the bed at my legs, "I-"

I quickly cut him off by slapping him hard across his face, and he flinched, his hand at his face. I grabbed him by the ear and pulled him in close.

"What else are you hiding from me, Allen?" I seethed, twisting his ear. He cried out softly, "You've been hiding from me all along, pretending to be some cute guy I liked, not telling me you were the Flash. I bet you thought it was funny, didn't you? Making a fool out of me like that? Why didn't you let me know?"

His hand feebly trying to pull my hand away as he mewled protests, I released his ear, and he rubbed the side of his face, grimacing softly before looking at me with sheepish frustration written across his face.

"Artemis, I've tried to-"

"I did it," Dr. Wells declared, interrupting Barry, surprising us all as we turned to watch his take his glasses off and touch his fingertips together, "I'm guilty for you not knowing about this. I've been forcing them to keep his identity from you. I - I thought it would keep you safe."

" _Safe?_ " I demanded, scowling, fighting back tears, "How was _not_ telling me Barry was the Flash going to keep me safe? I - I was terrified of the Flash! I told you to be honest with me, _Wells_. And you too, Allen."

"Artemis," Cisco intoned quietly, "Keeping you safe has been tricky. Working at STAR Labs is dangerous enough as it is. Knowing who the Flash is adds a whole other level of risk, for both Barry _and_ us."

"Cisco's brother had been kidnapped because Cisco knew who the Flash was," Caitlin explained, "I myself had been abducted too, and so was Iris. And - and Ronnie- we didn't want for you to be involved in this, because your connection to Barry's past is just - you're in danger _enough_ without knowing who he was."

"We all care for you," Cisco continued softly, "We've wanted you on the Team because you're smart, and we've wanted for you to know who Barry was because you already trusted him so. But Dr. Wells was right. Bad things happen to Barry's friends."

I sighed, and faced Barry, who was still sitting with me.

"Well," I murmured, pain pounding again in my eye. I slipped a hand over Barry's, "I understand where you're all coming from. But at the same time, I'm still seriously mad at-"

A pair of lips softly pressed against mine, shutting me up before I could finish my statement, baffling me altogether. Barry pulled away, smiling as he blushed.

I was too stunned by the quickness of it all to react.

Wait - did he just _kiss_ me?

"No more secrets," he stated, wrapping his hand over mine, "From now on, you're on the Team, and you're a real scientist at STAR Labs. Not a physicist working on her own."

I blinked and nodded, and Barry pulled me into a hug.

A kiss, and now an affectionate hug? Forget the hug - was there, did he, how did I - _kiss_?

My brain was sizzling into nonexistence...

"D'aww, I've been waiting for more than a month for this," Cisco murmured, nudging Caitlin with his elbow. She gave a small smile, and Dr. Wells rolled his eyes.

I pulled away.

"For the record, I had known it was you from almost a few days after getting to know you," I intoned, pointing a finger into his chest.

"And I easily led you to think otherwise," Barry remarked coyly.

"Only because you lied to my face, Allen."

Barry's smile dropped.

"I did what I thought was right. And you didn't make things any easier, promising to take me down and whatnot."

I chuckled, and shrugged, before sighing.

"Sorry about slapping you. And grabbing your ear."

"Didn't hurt," Barry commented easily.

"I - yes, it did. You were holding your cheek the entire time and you kept crying like a baby, asking me to let go..."

"Only to make you feel better about yourself," Barry conceded with a wink.

I scowled.

"Barry?"

"Mmm?"

"Go to hell."

"I'll see you there," Barry retorted easily, the edges of his lips tipping upwards in a provocative grin that captivated my interest, before he winked and got up.

I blushed and leaned against the gurney, sitting back.

 _Yup, we were back to normal_ , I thought, _which might not be such a bad thing considering he just kissed me. Kissed me. Assgjkfgsgsfg._

"What happens now?" Cisco called out. Barry turned around.

"Are you two actually going to date, or will you still play 'Romeo and Juliet'? Star-crossed lovers who can't be with each other?"

"We'll see about that," Barry shrugged, turning to me again, "Artemis, if you're feeling better, may I take you home?"

The love-struck stupor that dazed my brains soon snapped away, and I realized he asked me a question.

"Oh, right," I answered, "Um. Home? My place or yours?"

"Either one's fine, actually," Barry replied, "Joe left for Cambridge earlier tonight, and Iris is at Eddie's. Nobody's at my place."

"Ooh-la-la," Cisco teased, crossing his arms with a smug expression, " _Privacy_."

Caitlin and Dr. Wells shut him up with glares.

"We should probably go to my place," I muttered reluctantly, "I haven't been to my home in weeks."

"Why not?" Dr. Wells asked, concerned as Barry got up from the side of the bed, placing his arms under my back and knees.

"Uhm," I attempted, flashes of the man in yellow racing through my head, "I've kinda been a little afraid to go back ever since Snot Suit attacked."

" _Snot suit_?" Caitlin asked with an inquisitive smile.

"You... you don't need to be afraid anymore, you know," Barry murmured, smiling reassuringly as he easily picked up my frame from the bed.

"Wait," Cisco announced, putting his hand up to stop us, "If Artemis said that the Flash is half the man Barry was, but Barry _is_ the Flash, does that make Barry _half_ a man, or the Flash an entire man?"

Awkward silence as I looked at Barry with an apologetic face.

"Make sure she gets rest," Caitlin ordered, "And watch her neck."

Barry nodded, gave me a devilish grin as he adjusted the way he held me, before zooming out of the lab.

###

I hugged Barry's neck as he ran, holding me bridal style, wind and lights blurring together into one as we coursed through the streets, sidewalks and parks, until he slowed to a stop at my apartment door, still holding me as he unlocked the door, gently dropping me to my feet inside.

I turned and watched him lock and close the door, turn on the lights before he faced me.

As grateful as I was to be in the peace and quiet of my own home once more, no amount of tranquility could compare to how I felt about Barry now, as I studied him in a new light.

He was, of course, the same person as before, but at the same time - he was the Flash, as if the two identities had fused together, complimenting one another, completing each other.

He made sense now...

Stomach buzzing with anxious butterflies, I stepped forward and hugged him, closing my eyes as I placed my head in the curve between his neck and shoulder, arms round his waist, and he wrapped his arms around me in comforting security.

He had kissed me, back at the Lab.

True - it was quick, impulsive, nothing like the romantic kisses in the movies - but...

 _He had kissed me, back at the Lab._

I stayed still, enjoying the security I felt in Barry's arms, feeling finally at peace as I was engulfed in the faint essence of his cologne and the lingering remains of an urban scent.

I wished I could have stayed in that hug forever, holding Barry as he held me.

I hadn't felt safety like that since - since Officer Gordon had taken me into his arms, right after my mother had passed away, 14 or 16 years ago.

Barry was the _Flash_.

The Crimson Comet.

The Scarlet Speedster, the Fastest Man Alive.

The Guardian of Central City.

It was _him_.

I was in the presence of -no, I was _hugging_ a superhero.

I closed my eyes and nuzzled myself closer into his body, and he squeezed me, before I pulled my head away, and cautiously reached a hand up from his waist to carefully caress his face. He closed his eyes and turned his face slightly to place a kiss in the center of my palm, filling me with nervous warmth as he tilted and rested his face in my hand, lips at the edges of my palm.

I took a deep breath and leaned in, wanting my lips to be on his before I grimaced.

Barry couldn't be a murderer.

There had to be a reason why the Flash was there that night, although from what I remembered, Barry was a child when his mother died. He was one of the witnesses to the murder.

 _It must've been someone else, then,_ I thought.

We'd make sense of this.

I shivered as I pulled apart halfway.

Barry managed a tiny smile, and pulled me back in as he put his forehead to mine.

"Do you want me to make you dinner?" he asked gently.

"I'm not hungry."

Barry cracked a sheepish grin.

"Yeah, me neither."

I exhaled, lifting my arms and placing them over his shoulder, hands cradling the back of his head.

"Barry, what are we going to do?"

Hands carving through my hair with the other arm under my shoulders, he sighed.

"I don't know. I've never met a human I couldn't stop before. Even last time, he managed to get away."

 _Last time?_

"You've - you've met him before?" I asked, voice tense, eyes watering.

 _Say no._

 _Say no._

 _Don't tell me you too have seen this monster before._

 _Say no, Barry._

"Yeah," he murmured, gingerly running a thumb over my cheekbone as his green eyes gazed into mine, "Two weeks or so after he attacked you, he came after me."

A tiny cracking sound escaped my throat, and a tear left my eye, but Barry gently caught my hand before I could wipe it away.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I asked, voice heavy as I wept silently, pulling my hand free from Barry's gentle grasp to hug him again. I felt a kiss drop onto my head, and kind hands rubbed at my shivering back.

"You were already so terrified, Artemis," Barry consoled in a soft voice, "And you were afraid for me too. You knew he would find me, and you tried to prevent that by avoiding me in person. It didn't work. He's looking for us regardless."

I sniffled, and forced my tears at bay, wiping at my face quickly with a napkin before looking up at Barry.

"I was - I was so wrong about you, Barry," I confessed, breathing still unsteady, "I was so _so_ wrong about you. You're an incredible person, and you're a hero. I don't know why you let me continue to believe otherwise."

"I did try my best to convince you, if you remember," Barry murmured, kissing my cheek softly. I reluctantly smiled, and faced him.

"I, on the other hand, had never been wrong about you. You're a very brave person, you know that?" Barry whispered, "You tried to help me defeat that guy even when there was no way you could have done so without getting hurt yourself. What was it you said? Pick on someone your own size? You called him, what, a banana face? An _oversized_ _minion_?"

I smiled, blushing as I buried my face in his neck once more.

"You have a habit of picking the wrong fights, don't you, Artemis?" Barry whispered, as he carefully moved my hair out of the way of the side of my face, the feel of his soft breath tickling my damp cheek and down the part of my neck that wasn't in the brace.

"Yeah, well, my stepfather always said that if it was an easy fight, it wasn't a real challenge to begin with," I murmured, cupping Barry's face again in my hands, drawing my body closer to his as I brought his face to mine, "I'm not leaving the city. I'm going to stay and help you take down the other speedster. You don't need to do this alone anymore."

He smiled, wrapping his arms gently around my waist, pulling me in closer.

"And maybe I can convince you to stay a little while longer afterwards?" he added in a hushed tone, his eyes closing as he softly rubbed his nose against mine, his soft peppermint-scented breath brushing against my skin.

Heartbeat hammering in my chest, turning my breathing unsteady, and an exhilaration filling me as it slowly forced me forward, I carefully placed my mouth on his, kissing him softly at first before he placed his hand at my neck to kiss me back, deepening the moment. A small moan escaped from my throat, our lips softly crushing each others as Barry lifted one arm around my waist and carefully hoisted me so I was higher than him, passionately moving his honey-tasting mouth against my own inexperienced one, giving each other the kiss we both madly craved and when we finally pulled away, it was only because I needed air.

I breathed softly, admiring the bold green in Barry's eyes as his fingers softly traced my face, tenderly caressing the black circle around my eye, before moving down to the brace on my neck, sighing sadly.

"Do you want more?" He blurted out softly, before turning a bit flustered, "I mean - I thought you'd maybe want more. If that was a good kiss. Not that _I_ thought it was a bad kiss, I just thought that if you-"

I shut his adorkable-ness the way I figured best, delicately kneading my mouth against his, testing him. He let out a sound that was something along the lines of a tiny groan as he wound his arm tighter around my waist, one hand lost itself in my wet hair, guiding my head forward to get a better angle I didn't know existed, the both of us engrossed in the intimacy of the moment, before we pulled away, smiling at each other with our foreheads touching.

"That was even better in real life," Barry murmured, as if he was dazed.

"In real life?" I murmured, raising an inquisitive eyebrow up at him playfully, before grabbing his arm and leading him to my couch, where we spent the next two hours or so just enjoying each other's companionship, laughing, and telling each other funny stories as we held each other in our arms - Barry about the metahumans he's fought as the Flash, about an asshole military general named "Eiling", about a man with an ice gun and his companion with a fire one - Captain Cold and HeatWave, who referred to themselves as 'Rogues', about how Caitlin really didn't have a life ("You have _not_ seen her drunk, I swear") and how Cisco was painfully single, and about how Wells has been a great source of guidance to all of them, and has used his knowledge of physics to hone down on Barry's abilities, and teach him new feats, with the help of Caitlin and Cisco, and how he has a tiny addiction to Big Belly Burger.

Not _quite_ as impressive, I told Barry about how I'd gotten busted in college for illicitly conducting experiments in my dormitories before the school decided to trust me and let me get away with it ("You know - most kids get in trouble for doing drugs? Cooking drugs? Partying and getting drunk right out of their minds? But, umm, conjuring the various forms of sulfur nitride is... troublesome too, I guess?"), how I nearly killed a kid at the age of 12 and actually spent a night in juvenile hall ("Umm... I'm a superhero... You're not really supposed to tell me stuff like that."), and about how my father once took me fishing out of curiosity when I was 5, I had fallen out of the boat, and when he found me, I had somehow caught a fish in my mouth ("Umm... How exactly do I react to that?") and about my favorite memories with the Walkers.

"So, Lin Walker?" Barry asked, after laughing at yet another one of my crazy stories, "He sounds... interesting. I haven't really heard you mention him before."

"Yeah," I realized, before shrugging, "I don't know - I haven't really spoken to him since I turned 18, so..."

" _18?_ "

"Yeah. Raised me for five years, saw me leave for college, then poof! Gone. I've been on my own ever since."

"You've never spoken to him since?" Barry inquired, slightly distraught, "Or seen him? Or his wife or son? They never checked up on you?"

"I - no, Barry," I answered, unsure what else to say, "I've tried to call them and ask how they were. I've emailed and texted, but for some reason their email addresses don't exist anymore. I even flew over to Los Angeles on my own once to see if I could surprise them with a visit, but they're not there anymore. They must have moved away."

Barry mulled it over for a second.

"I have friends in Starling City who can help you track them down. Cisco could do it too."

I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder, putting a hand on his knee.

"It's fine, Barry. I've been doing really well on my own. And to be honest, I kind of felt like I got in the way of their own family. They have their own son. They can focus their attention on him, now."

"As someone who grew up in the exact same situation, I never felt that way. Joe's given me just as much attention as Iris, maybe even more."

"Yeah well, you're really lucky to have them in your life," I murmured, kissing his shoulder, "And I'll always appreciate the Walkers for what they did for me, but I don't need them. I'm more than lucky to have STAR Labs now."

"Hey - _I'm_ lucky to have you too," Barry protested, sitting up and smiling down at me, before kissing my forehead.

I smiled and sighed, before an odd thought occurred to me.

"Why exactly did you answer my 9-1-1 call? Not that I'm complaining - I was just pretty freaked when you picked up the phone at the time."

"What?" Barry asked, before recognition fell through his eyes and he scuffled to get up, gently letting go of me, "Oh god - I left the station."

"Everything okay?" I asked, worried.

"Singh is going to fire me," Barry mumbled, flustering as he used his speed to get himself up, zooming around my kitchen in a flash of lightning until he appeared in front of me, fixing his coat over his tall frame.

"Your coat's inside out," I intoned gently, enjoying Barry's slight panic as he tried to fix himself.

"Is it better now?" He asked, putting his coat on properly.

"Hold on," I murmured, as if I was deep in thought, before I quickly pulled him in by the collar of his coat, kissing him deeply, before pulling away and giving him a tiny smile.

"It's better now," I murmured, smiling shyly.

Barry smiled and pulled me into his arms for one last hug, sighing contentedly.

"I'm hugging the _Flash_ ," I wondered out loud, my frame holding onto Barry's as if it was the last thing in the world.

"You made out with him several times, too," Barry chirped, shooting a single eyebrow up twice. I blushed, and Barry surprised me with a soft but deep kiss, before pulling away, the two of us holding hands between our bodies.

"I really don't want to leave," Barry intoned, stepping away towards my door though he still held my hand, "But Singh's going to have my head if I don't get my act together. If anything happens, you call me."

"Sure," I responded, "I've got you on speed dial."

Something occurred to me, and I chuckled softly.

"What is it?" Barry asked, standing in the doorway.

"I have you on _speed_ dial," I retorted, laughing silently.

Barry rolled his eyes and smiled, pulling me in yet again to place another kiss on my cheek before catching one on my mouth, and opening the door, backing into my doorway.

"I'd take you with me, but you need rest," Barry stated kindly.

"What - and you don't?" I asked, "I mean, after that little face-off tonight, I'd figure you'd be as exhausted as I am."

"I heal from physical injuries really quickly, remember? And - no, I don't get tired that quickly. I only need about four to five hours of sleep per night."

"Oh," I murmured, though part of me was a bit puzzled, "So what do you do for the rest of the night?"

"I don't know - it depends on my mood. Sometimes I'll go hunt for crime on my own if it's there. Or eat. Or run for no reason, get some fresh air. Or waste time on Netflix... Or, you know, lie awake thinking about _you_."

I rolled my eyes at him.

He may actually be a bigger dork that I was.

"Well, you better get going, Sunshine," I chided easily, "It's going to be a long night for you."

Barry turned around, before he smiled lightly at nothing in thought, facing me.

"I've been noticing you've been calling me 'Sunshine' a lot, lately?" He remarked.

I blushed.

"It just stuck after a while, I suppose," I answered with a shrug, before I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his cheek. I watched a sheepish smile appear on his lips, his eyes twinkling softly, and I beamed with satisfaction at the sight of his smile, wrapping one arm round his shoulder, tickling one finger under his chin, "And besides - have you _seen_ your smile? You could seriously put the sun to shame with that thing."

Barry's smile turned into a gentle smirk, and he cupped my face in his hands and passionately kissed my face, light jolts of electricity flying pleasantly through me, letting my heart melt down to my feet, before he pulled away.

"Are we just going to stay here and make out or do you plan on keeping your job?" I scolded playfully, reluctantly pushing him away though my entire conscience wished he could stay with me forever.

Barry rolled his eyes, and the edges of his mouth tipped up in a small smile, and he walked backwards, still facing me, out into the hallway.

"See you, tomorrow, Van Kleiss?"

"Likewise, Allen."

Barry strode forward yet again, returning to plant another kiss on my cheek, whispering _Stay safe_ to me, before letting go and saluting me as he walked away.

The second my hero disappeared around the hallway, I heard a crackle of lightning and a _Zoom!_ sound, signifying that he left, and I ran to the ledge, catching a glimpse of a bright bolt of lightning passing through the rain, bolting effortlessly over Cloverleaf before Barry escaped into the city beyond the gates, taking my heart with him.


	17. Fast as Lightning

**Sorry this chapter is kind of late...** **I dedicated last week to writing a one-shot that's been published. Check it out, if you've got the time! I'd love some feedback on it! ^u^**

 **Also, I normally don't give shout-outs but MANNN I love all of my readers. You've all been undeterred in your support and love for my story since I first began writing TUATI, and I can't help but feel warm and giddy because of it! This story would be nothing without you.**

 **So - PoeFryeKenway, Lizeyli, ArtChaser, CharmFelicis, BlueBonfire - I'm sorry; I won't be able to name all of you, but you're still loved nonetheless if you aren't named - THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!**

 **AND GOOD LUCK WITH THOSE AP TESTS! I BELIEVE IN ALL OF YOU!**

 **Also, could we all take a second to appreciate "Abandoned," a fic by ArtChaser? Wow - that is some seriously good stuff. If you thought Zoom was/is scary, you'll have nightmares from Evil Barry... It's just an incredibly captivating story.**

 **That is all, and I hope you all enjoy this chapter! :)**

 **\- DBV**

* * *

After a rather interesting night of sleep, I forced myself to go back to work the next morning, and was welcomed by a surprised STAR Labs.

"Artemis!" Caitlin called out, running to me and embracing me lovingly as Cisco followed behind her.

"You're supposed to be resting!" She scolded kindly, holding my shoulders at arm's length.

I shrugged and instead hugged Cisco, who was waiting with open arms.

"You feeling better?" He asked, giving me a warm smile.

I nodded and ruffled a hand through his hair, before smiling at Dr. Wells.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, how are you?" He inquired with a polite smile.

"I'm good, sir," I chirped, sitting beside him and folding my hands together on the desk.

"I'd imagine yesterday must have been... a distinctive kind of day for you?"

"No kidding," I retorted with a small laugh, nervous all of a sudden, "I discovered raw electron matter with hyper energies, passed out after Barry told me he was the Flash, was attacked by my mortal enemy, then passed out again after Barry told me he was the Flash, then went home and slept it all off."

Dr. Wells chuckled, before he looked up at me with serious eyes.

"So... how are you taking it all in?" He asked, "Barry being the Flash, I mean? You must have questions, no doubt?"

"To be honest, I'm fine with it," I answered with an easy shrug, "I mean - I feel a lot better knowing _now_ than I did not knowing before."

 _We made out, like, seven times, Dr. Wells._

 _I honestly think we'll be okay._

Dr. Wells sighed and forced a grin.

"Well then."

Caitlin made her way to the medical labs and got started on some work, and Cisco joined Dr. Wells at the Cortex computers, where they analyzed metahuman activity, trying to fish out a potential criminal.

"Umm," I mumbled, both turning to face me, "Anything I can help with here?"

"Actually - I had a question about your discoveries," Dr. Wells proclaimed, furrowing his eyebrows as he leaned away from the computer, "What... did you want to call your new electron?"

"What?"

"You discovered it, Artemis," Cisco announced amiably, "It's going down in history with your name credited behind it, so _you_ get to name it. I mean - I can totally help, if you'd like."

I exhaled and smiled, looking down at my hands.

Footsteps were heard from the right, and Barry arrived, with light shadows under his eyes and a sunny smile on his face.

"How'd your night at the CCPD go?" Caitlin asked, appearing out of the medical wing with papers in her hand, before she stuck an electric thermometer in Barry's mouth, "We haven't trained you in almost two weeks. You're due for a checkup, you know."

Barry smiled but rolled his eyes at Caitlin, who marked his temperature and walked away with the thermometer, before Barry faced the three of us.

"What's up?" He asked easily, holding his hand out for me to fist-bump it in greeting. Instead of hitting my fist to his, I took his hand in mine and held it that way, before turning to Dr. Wells, who was still waiting for my answer.

"I - I think I'm gonna call it the hyper electron," I stated, "Because of it's hyper electronegativity. It's behavior is rather uncontrollable as well. And in particle form - electron matter, instead of ecfranite or vankleissium. Neither of those names apply anymore."

The edges of Cisco's lips turned downward as he leaned forward, wearing an impressed smile. Dr. Wells nodded his head, his eyes glinting a smile in approval.

"Hyper electrons. That's rich," Cisco conceded.

"So that's the name going into future science textbooks and publications," Dr. Wells mused, the edges of his mouth tipping up with the hint of a smile, "Not bad."

Almost immediately, the Cortex alarms went off, and METAHUMAN ALERT signals blared in red on the computer screens, Caitlin soon joining Cisco and Wells at the tables.

I scurried to my feet and automatically grabbed my keys, ready to leave as per usual during metahuman attacks, when a lean arm caught me around around my stomach and held me back.

"Where do you think you're going?" Barry chided, eyebrow raised as he smiled at me.

"Metahuman alert," I stuttered, "I'm not supposed to be here when the Fla-"

Oh. Right.

Barry was the Flash.

Oops.

Barry gave me a crooked grin before turning me around so I faced the trio at the tables, before there was a fast rush of wind and lightning, and he was gone.

"It's SilverShock. Picked him up from a traffic cam. He's on Stark Avenue, Downtown," Cisco called out, "At the Rollins Business Park."

Caitlin and Dr. Wells noticed me standing with my mouth open, and turned to each other with shy smiles, silently agreeing on something, before pulling a chair up in between them. Dr. Wells indicated for me to join them.

Was this actually happening?! I was invited to work with them?

 _(I've got him,)_ Barry responded through the comms, _(Oh - god. He's even crazier than last time.)_

"Didn't we put this guy away?" I asked, puzzled, "I thought Barry got him when he was with me last time."

 _When he was with me._

 _When Barry was with me._

 _As the Flash._

 _God, this felt so insanely awesome._

"Iron Heights couldn't hold him, it seems," Dr. Wells remarked, as we saw two dots on the computer - one being Barry/Flash, the other Roger Wahlberg.

"Barry - get those people out of there," Caitlin called out with sharp worry, "Those buildings are made with concrete foundations. Central City has almost _zero_ earthquake activity, so they've got horrible tension against those quakes."

"They're not going to hold up," I realized, eyes widening, "They'll begin deteriorating after the magnitude reaches or surpasses a measure of 5.5."

"And this guy's easily hitting up a 6, and it's spreading fast," Cisco realized, "Barry -"

We heard a long series of whooshing sounds over the comms, followed by surprised screams and we knew Barry was getting everyone who hadn't run away in fear out of the way.

"We have to figure out how to take him down before SilverShock destroys the city," Dr. Wells muttered, typing something into the other computer, "Artemis, help me while Cisco and Caitlin guide Barry."

 _Artemis, help me while Cisco and Caitlin guide Barry._

 _Artemis, welcome to Team Flash._

Cisco and Caitlin tried to steer Barry into taking SilverShock down without getting himself killed, while Dr. Wells and I tried to formulate a way to take the guy down, as Barry was not able to do much.

Something clicked in my brain.

I stood up and walked over to where Cisco was, and watched the map with the two dots, zooming out until I saw what I wanted.

"Hey, Sunshine," I called out, "Is our little metahuman still wearing those huge steel boots?"

 _(Yeah,)_ Barry panted, before he screamed, running into the metahuman, who was laughing maniacally as the traffic cams showed him easily flicking Barry away.

Those boots must be tied to his abilities, somehow...

But the weight of that steel-like material...

"Barry?" I called out, all eyes on me now, "Why don't you take our friend Roger here out for a swim?"

"What?" Caitlin asked in disbelief.

 _(Excuse me?)_

"Grab Wahlberg by the legs, if you can," I advised, "And try to run him over to Chubbuck Lake. Those boots - he uses them somehow to pass tremors into the ground. I'm guessing they won't do him any good in the water. Theoretically, they probably use some sort of device that intensifies his powers, targets them straight into the ground. Tech like that won't work if he's thrashing around in a lake."

"Barry - she's right It's the only way," Dr. Wells affirmed, "You can't stop him on land. Get him to a source of water. Fast - you don't have much time before he does away with those buildings for good."

Cisco and Caitlin quickly stepped in, guiding Barry the rest towards the closest and largest body of water - Chubbuck Lake ( _Why didn't anyone listen to me when I had already pointed Chubbuck Lake earlier?!)_ , and before we knew it, a bolt of lightning dashed through and back out the Cortex, and Cisco and Caitlin rose, running down to the Pipeline. I stayed and watched as the bolt of lightning returned in a few seconds - _seconds!_ \- and stopped in the Cortex, and smiled as Barry peeled back his cowl and dropped two weighty silver boot-like devices on the floor. I walked around the Cortex to pick them up and study them.

"Wow," I mused, curiously examining the pipe-like devices running down the metal sides, "I was right. He _was_ using these to direct his powers into the ground."

Barry smiled and lifted me up by the arm so I was standing.

"We were gonna go and throw him in the Pipeline, and be overdramatic about locking him up for good. It's a bit of a ritual after we catch metas. It's kind of fun. You wanna watch?"

I nodded nervously and Barry zoomed me down with his arm around my back, flipping his cowl back on before we stopped in the core chambers, where Cisco and Caitlin had already beaten us, and Wahlberg was pounding his hand on the palladium glass.

I could instantly feel the core chamber humming with powerful, thrusting vibrations, as if he was trying to send reverberations into the air to bust himself out.

He must have the ability to send those - those _reverberations_ into the ground, and those megaton metal boots probably amplified that effect.

"Let. Me. Out!" He ordered, his coat and helmet still an ugly shade of silver.

"Not until you learn how to dress properly," I found myself muttering. Team Flash turned to me with amused smiles.

"It's over, Wahlberg," Barry intoned out loud, pride lighting up his clear voice, "Your days of terrorizing the city have come to an end."

"No! No! No!" Wahlberg screamed, falling to his knees as Cisco typed in the proper sequence in the control panels, "I'm going to get out of here! You can't hold me forever!"

"But we will," Cisco retorted, finalizing the sequence.

The chamber was sent back into the particle accelerator, a huge wall hiding the empty space.

"You were right," I murmured, "That _was_ overdramatic."

"Oh, this was _nothing_ ," Caitlin remarked, "Some of them start dictating entire _speeches,_ always promising they'll find a way escape, exact their revenge on us, the usual nonsense. It gets boring after a while, really."

I looked at her in awe.

" _This_ is what you guys do when I'm not around?"

Cisco cringed and nodded, "Yeah, sorry we didn't include you earlier."

"We were scared that you were going to try to take the Flash down in your little escapade to show everyone he couldn't be trusted," Caitlin explained.

"That was before I knew the Flash was a total geek," I answered, turning around to face Barry, before I carefully pulled his cowl down and pinched his cheek. He giggled, making a feeble protest as he tried to push me away, to no avail.

I suddenly noticed the interesting pattern on Barry's suit, and the unique structure of the fabric. Surprising him, I dropped my hand from his face and lifted up his muscular arm, turning it around in my hand. I examined the material of his suit, the contours of the strangely thick but lightweight fabric.

"Woahhh," I remarked in awe, feeling the dense material as it conformed to his arm, "This - now, _this_ is finesse. I am literally awestruck. This is _unbelievably_ impressive - Who made this?"

"Henry and Nora Allen," Barry answered with a smirk, raising an eyebrow as he watched me, "Circa 1990."

"I was talking about the suit, weirdo," I chided, enjoying the blush creep up on Barry's face as he looked away. I dropped his arm, and studied the deep red color of his suit. This was the first time I actually saw it.

"This is my favorite color, actually," I noted, "It was MIT's school color, too."

Barry smiled, and I looked at his arm again.

Yellow lightning bolts adorned the biceps and traced down his sides, before reappearing down his thighs. The material looked like leather, but I knew better than to assume that. Leather burned too easily, and Barry would need something that was friction proof to be able to run.

"What's this made of? Tricarbon polymer?"

"Yeah, actually," Cisco answered, clasping Barry on his shoulder, "Carefully woven by yours truly, reinforced with carefully construed metal compounds that will absorb kinetic energy and shock, ultimately saving this guy from breaking more bones than he needs to."

"Damn," I murmured, nodding my head, "I personally would have used radioactive insulation. It'll streamline to fit the shape of his body, but also allow for fluid movement while the metal-like fabric would act as a body shield."

"Yeah, but you forget the part where it's radioactive?" Caitlin brought up, raising an eyebrow.

"I would've figured something out," I assured easily.

Barry grinning as he tried to pull away from me, "You guys thought I wanted to kill him? _Look_ at him, Caitlin. Take the mask off, and you find yourself a complete cinnamon roll."

"Yeah," Cisco retorted, "A cinnamon roll who could actually kill you."

"Nonsense. He may look like he could kill you, with the suit on, but as Barry Allen, he is still a cinnamon roll," I maintained, ruffling Barry's hair, "Although, yes, you were there when my mother died, and I saw you in the room when I was six, so you were somehow involved in my mother's murder. I still want an explanation for that."

The group fell silent as we arrived in the Cortex, Dr. Wells studying the boots, one now placed in his lap, and Cisco was the first to speak up.

"We wish we could give you one," he declared softly, wringing his hands, "But we can't. Barry's DNA was found at the crime scene."

"What does that mean?" I asked, seeing Barry, whom I had an arm around, in a new, confusing light.

"It gets interesting," he answered, and I dropped my arms around him, "The proteins in the blood found reveal that I was 25 years old when I went back."

"What? You went back? At the age of 25?" I demanded, "But - but you're only 23?"

"He's 24, to be exact," Dr. Wells called, setting the boot down, "The only explanation we have so far is that Barry's going to go back in time to that night at some point in the future."

"You can _time_ travel?" I asked in disbelief, turning to Barry with a combination of sheer disbelief and profound wonder.

"No!" He answered, raising his hands in defeat, "All we know is that..."

"What happened in the past has not yet occurred in the present, if that makes any sense," Caitlin finished, her eyes worried.

"And for the record - if I ever go back in time to that night, it definitely isn't to - to kill your mother. I'm apparently supposed to go back to my own home too," Barry continued, as I studied his face for any signs of lies. There were none, "Artemis - I, I think that sometime in the future, I'm going to try and go back to _save_ our mothers from the man in yellow."

###

Barry left for work, where Singh and Lake and the others were happily waiting for him with yet more cases, and left us at the Lab, where we continued to work. I worked with the ecfranite - sorry, _electron matter_ \- for a while before I went back down to the Cortex and helped Cisco and Dr. Wells in Cisco's workshop, both of whom obliged, seeing how I was now an official member of the team.

"For the record, I've been wanting this since the day you joined the lab," Cisco praised, as I helped him build his magnum arc synthesizer with my own tech.

"You've been wanting what?" I asked casually, using a blowtorch to melt a metal fuse in.

"For you to be on Team Flash," he answered, adjusting one of the other pieces next to me, "I've always had a hunch you'd be a great asset to the team."

"No kidding," Caitlin replied, smiling as she brought us bags of food, returning from her late afternoon lunch, "The way she caught the jiff with the water? I doubt anyone could have foreseen that. It helps to have an extra mind on the team."

Beside us, Dr. Wells smiled apologetically.

"I was only trying to do what was best for everyone," he conceded, "Artemis's connection to the Flash already makes her a liability. I didn't want for that to be so, and I figured keeping her away from him would protect them both."

"Dr. Wells, it's fine," I answered, as I handed Cisco the finished fuse, "I understand why you did what you had to. I'm - I'm still having a bit of trouble processing it all, but I understand your reasoning. But do you know what I don't understand?"

"What is it?" Dr. Wells asked kindly, leaning back in his wheelchair as he folded his hands.

"Why the man in yellow wants me and Barry, specifically," I stated, "The two of us have nothing in common. Neither did our parents. Barry - Barry's a speedster, so I'm guessing the man in yellow wants his competition out of the picture, or something. What do I have to offer? I'm no superhero."

The trip fell silent, as they tried to work out an answer.

"The science," Caitlin murmured, looking at me with worry, "Your parents were supposedly killed because of their experiments on the vankleissium. You have proof that the yellow speedster did it. And - and he did tell you he came back to finish the job."

I felt as if the temperature in the room cooled down suddenly, sending shivers down my arms, or as if everything just turned grim.

"It's the science," I repeated slowly, fear coursing through me.

"You'd better figure out how to use the hyper electron to strip metahumans of their abilities quick, Ms. Van Kleiss," Dr. Wells urged in soft solemnity, "So you could at least have a chance at stopping him should he strike again."

Realizing what he said was true, I nodded gravely.

"I will, sir," I promised, before a wall of wind hit us, signifying that Barry had arrived. A warm happiness flew through me as I saw him. He returned the smile and winked at me.

"Hey!"

Cisco got up to pick up the pieces that had scattered behind him.

"Seriously, bro?"

Barry smiled apologetically, and zoomed into motion before Cisco could even bend down, and all of the little metallic pieces were found on the table.

"So..." Barry murmured, smiling brightly.

Caitlin rose and grabbed him by the bicep, leading him away as he protested in surprise.

"It's about time you showed up. Let's go."

Dr. Wells smiled and followed after them in his chair.

"Where are they going?" I asked in confusion.

"Oh, Barry has bi-weekly checkups and weekly training sessions," Cisco answered with a smirk, "And this week he gets both. You wanna watch us whip your boyfriend into shape?"

"Not my boyfriend," I mumbled with a blush, before I nodded, following Cisco as he practically skipped out into the Cortex, where Dr. Wells was waiting.

"So, Artemis," he proclaimed with a small smile, "Would you care to help Cisco and I prepare the Cosmic Treadmill, or stay in medical bay with Caitlin?"

"Say what?"

"We're training Barry," Cisco expounded, "We do so every week. We gotta revamp the Cosmic Treadmill's input."

"So it _is_ a treadmill," I snickered confidently, walking past them.

"Yes," Dr. Wells sighed with guilt, "We needed to tell you otherwise, or else you'd have flown right off of it into the wall at hundreds of miles per hour and most likely have crushed every bone in your body had Barry not found you in time."

I cocked an eyebrow up at them.

"I'll stay here with Caitlin, then."

"Very well," Dr. Wells said, and the two of them disappeared down the hallway leading to the back wing. I turned on my heels and stepped inside the medical wing, knocking on the open doorway before entering anyway.

Barry had taken off his cardigan and button up shirt, and was now wearing a white undershirt, which was doing his upper body _plenty_ of justice.

He was seated on the gurney, hands on his knees, and Caitlin was in full-doctor mode, holding up an otoscope into his ear. I leaned against the doorway and studied his figure.

 _God, those lean, muscular arms..._

 _And was that a six-pack?_

 _Dear lord - did this guy actually make out with me last night?_

"Hey," Barry muttered to me, rolling his eyes at Caitlin, who went over to the counter to write something in in a medical file, "What're you doing?"

"Checking you out."

Barry and Caitlin both stiffened and looked at me edgily, before I realized what I said.

"I - I meant checking out what you were doing," I corrected with a nervous laugh, "Guess my brain just blacked out for a second. Because of yesterday, not because of you. I hit my head - in the South yesterday. I'm probably - I, umm, I'll just stop talking."

Barry laughed silently, and Caitlin smiled, before she walked over to me and pulled me into the room by the hand, and I yelped in surprise as she handed me a clipboard with the medical file on it.

"Nice save," she remarked, "I'm gonna need a lab assistant. He's being impatient today, so I figured why not just have here to distract him while I work?"

Barry furrowed his eyebrows, and I scowled softly in confusion.

"Umm, distract him?"

"Just be yourself and write down everything I say," Caitlin maintained, returning to Barry to finish his checkup, "Then everyone in the room gets what they want."

Sly fox - she was.

She had already measured and marked down his temperature in the morning, and needed to examine his respiration, blood pressure, pulse, ROM's and I&O's. I dutifully stood by and noted down everything she called out on the medical file, joking about how I did _not_ graduate early from MIT solely to become a mere assistant. Barry, for the most part, let Caitlin run her regular examination, and I tried not to gawk at the numbers.

Barry had pretty unrealistic vitals. The numbers were physically impossible to maintain healthily, and any human with vitals like his would either be an immortal god, or dead.

But Barry was a speedster. A human whose body was _designed_ to break physical norms.

"Wow - what were you like before you got hit by lightning?" I gushed, reading the numbers, "Because _this_ is pretty incredible."

Barry gave me a smug grin.

"Oh, you know," he answered, leaning slightly forward with a hand at his side, "Not that different. I was, uhh, still really fit and in physical pique condition back then, too."

"Really?"

Caitlin snickered.

" _Before_ he got struck by lightning, he was thin, scrawny and pretty weak for someone his size," she described, "Somehow, though, his body healed itself and actually became _stronger_ after the particle accelerator blew up, and his body essentially went through a complete cellular regeneration, giving him new abilities, a better physique and an increased level of required sustenance to maintain himself healthily."

"Wow," I joked, "So, you basically went from Steven Rodgers to Captain America?"

Barry and Caitlin both froze, and gave me quizzical looks.

"That was... a unique analogy?" Caitlin murmured, "It took him nine months instead of a few minutes to get his new abilities, though, and hopefully Barry doesn't plan on going anywhere near or getting trapped in any sources of ice any time soon."

"We still have Snart though," Barry teased playfully, "And I can get Cisco to build me a shield, if you'd like."

Caitlin and I both rolled our eyes at him, unimpressed, before I gently slapped his arm, and we went back to work.

Lastly, we had his to check his pulse.

Caitlin smiled as she brought out a regular stethoscope and put the diaphragm chest piece to his hard torso, slipping the earpieces in, before removing them and handing me the plastic eartubes as she held the chest piece against him.

"Listen," she requested, and I took the stethoscope from her, inserting the earpieces in.

I paused and waited for a second, before scowling softly and turning to her in bewilderment.

"Are you - are you holding it in the wrong place?" I asked in astonishment, "I don't hear anything."

"That's because I don't have a heart," Barry conceded. I gently slapped him again in mock annoyance, and Caitlin pulled out a different stethoscope - this one made of a dark metal, with a more futuristic-looking chest piece.

"He has a heart, alright," Caitlin said, smiling at us, "It just moves too fast to be heard through a normal stethoscope. I designed this one and built it using a more advanced ear system, so the beat can be heard clearly, with a small ticker that automatically counts the number of beats since the rhythm moves too fast for a human to keep track."

"Wow, that's genius," I commented, impressed as I watched Caitlin put the unique device to her ears and to Barry's heart, and a small slot began shooting up with numbers that rose higher and higher.

"Most humans have a resting heartbeat of around 60 to 100 beats per minute," Caitlin clarified, "Mr. Allen's resting heartbeat averages itself to around 180 to 240 beats, sometimes up to 300 beats. If a human heart were to beat that fast-"

"It would tire itself out quickly, and the body won't receive enough blood fast enough, so the person would die of internal strangulation," I murmured.

Caitlin looked over at me with a curious smile.

"What?" I asked, "Its basic physics. If you have something small exerting more energy than it can handle in such a short amount of time, it'll wear itself out."

Her smile grew brighter and she handed me her stethoscope, which I placed in my ears.

Instantly, I heard a rather fast-paced, deep beating sound, which almost became a long, continuous note if one didn't focus clearly and missed the individual beats.

"Again, _wow_."

"You're just in awe of me today, aren't you?" Barry remarked, as he reached for his shirt at the foot of the gurney. Caitlin slapped his hand.

"Nope. You're not done yet," she said, leading me out of the room, "Barry, go change. We're waiting for you down in the back wing."

A bolt of lightning escaped the medical lab and traveled to another part of the lab, and Caitlin and I walked together to the back wing.

"So," she intoned with a hint of a playful smile, "What'd you think?"

The question threw me off.

 _What did I think?_

Of Barry not only being one hell of an awesome person, but on top of that, being seriously unbelievable? With those abilities and physical power and whatnot?

I shrugged.

Caitlin raised an eyebrow.

"Nothing?" She asked quietly, hiding a smile, "Just -?"

She shook her shoulders before dropping them, emphasizing how much my shrug understated my thoughts.

"It's pretty incredible, to be honest," I blurted, blush blooming into my cheeks.

Caitlin chuckled, and led me to a room, designed like a mini-Cortex with white walls, with windows showcasing the room that contained the Cosmic Treadmill. Dr. Wells and Cisco were already seated at the computers, and Caitlin sat me down at one of the special computers, which depicted the blue outline of a human body with biomeasurements and vital scans on them.

"You can help by monitoring his biometrics," she stated, before seating at another computer that took care of his vitals, with Cisco manning the treadmill from a computer.

A bolt of lightning arrived in the adjacent room, and I looked up, watching Barry step onto the treadmill's platform, dressed in white sneakers, gray sweats and a black STAR Labs shirt.

"What am I aiming for today?" Barry asked without facing us, turning on the monitors at the platform.

"Your average is only 602 miles per hour," Dr. Wells responded, typing something into his computer.

" _Only_ 602 miles per hour?" I interjected in disbelief, my jaw dropping.

Dr. Wells smiled without looking at me, and finished keying in his controls, "Let's see if you can make it at least up to 650 today."

"On your mark, Barry," Caitlin permitted, and Barry gave a wily grin before he typed in the 'desired input' into the treadmill, and powered it on, walking easily at first, before moving at a slow-paced jog at first, before he steadily began to accelerate faster and faster. Within a few minutes, lightning began to crackle around him, and soon, his legs and arms turned hazy as they moved too fast to be distinguishable, and Barry became a bullet moving in place, beating his legs against the racing treadmill underneath him.

"That's the spirit," Dr. Wells muttered, and Cisco began to take note of something, muttering to himself as our lab experiment ran at supernatural speeds, taking my breath away.

"He's at 613 mph now. 614. 617. 620," Cisco announced,

"Heart rate is fine, blood pressure is normal, nerve conduction at its regular pace," Caitlin stated monotonously, as if she'd done it several times before, "As are his glucose levels. Everything's fine, really."

"How are his biometrics?" someone asked.

I didn't answer.

I was unable to pull my eyes away from the sight of something so incredible, so unrealistic, so... impossible.

But there it was.

And there _Barry_ was, running with unbelievable power as if it was his second nature. Heck, this _was_ his second nature...

"634... 640," Cisco continued counting, "Dr. Wells, I think he might actually be able to make it."

Dr. Wells smiled at Cisco's words, and outside, Barry moved faster - even _faster_ , how was that still possible?

"Oh shoot, he's at 651!" Cisco exclaimed in excitement, "657, 666, 667!"

I laughed a little in disbelief, grounding myself in the sound of myself laughing - something that felt real, as I continued to watch Barry Allen defy physics as I knew it - how were his clothes not burning off in face of all that friction? (Not that I was complaining... okay... maybe a little?) How was the treadmill still functioning at speeds that fast? Again, the principles of friction were being refuted before my eyes. Heck, all that energy in the room should have blown the cardboard packaging meant to cushion Barry if he slipped into the wall...

"Ahh, he's platforming," Cisco declared dejectedly, watching as the graph he had been studying slowed to a straight line, "He made it to 674 mph, though."

"That's not _too_ bad," Dr. Wells replied, "We had set the bar at 650. It's still pretty good."

 _Not too bad?_

 _Pretty good?_

Did they miss the fact that Barry was running at speeds that were comparable to those of a jet fighter?

Outside, Barry slowed down slowly, the electricity in the room depleting until it hit a complete stop, and I watched, transfixed, as Barry Allen/the Flash easily slid off of the treadmill, a small smile playing on his lips as he panted softly, running a hand through silky brown hair, face peppered with unnoticeable beads of sweat.

"Artemis?" Dr. Wells called, his voice jarring me back to reality, "His biometrics? You've been silent this whole time. You were supposed to be monitoring him."

"Oh, right!" I chirped, trying to read the meanings behind the numbers on the chart in front of me, "His biometrics are..."

I was interrupted yet again as I watched Barry from the corner of my eye, until he had stolen my attention by forcing me to do a double take, watching him easily slide the shirt over his head, revealing a lanky frame with attractively defined muscles - strong, smooth shoulders, chest contoured convexly at the pecs. Tight, chiseled abs underneath. Deep inward curves at the base of his sides where his sweats hung just a tad bit too low.

I could've died right then and heaven would've shown me the same, exact thing.

Barry wiped away at his neck and face with the shirt, before tossing it at Cisco, where it draped over his face, as Barry stood behind Caitlin and Dr. Wells, propping both hands on the backs of their chairs as he leaned forward to read the computers.

"Huh. I didn't do too bad," he amazed.

"Don't see why you saw the need to remove your shirt," Dr. Wells muttered, "You barely broke a sweat."

Cisco removed said shirt off of his face, unveiling a devious smile.

"Oh, _Dr. Wells_ ," he crooned, "Don't be so _naive_. There's a new scientist on the Team, and Barry's gotta show himself off."

Everyone turned and faced me, and my ears automatically turned hot, signifying the fact that they'd reddened brightly.

Startled, I gulped and turned to the screen, still not making sense of the numbers.

"Your - your biometrics are _excellent._ First-rate. Outstanding. Record-breaking," I announced, exaggerating each word, though I had no idea what it was I was supposed to be looking at - other than his marble body. I turned and faced them,"There, you happy now?"

Barry gave me a smug snicker, raising an eyebrow as he rested a hand on his side, the shirt hanging from his other hand. My insides twisted themselves into knots.

"Go put a shirt on, Allen."

He exhaled, as if he was musing the thought over and enjoying my weakness, before he caught Dr. Wells's glare and rolled his eyes before he jolted out of the room, the air crackling behind him, and he soon returned, dressed in jeans, work shoes, a gray cardigan over his button-up plaid shirt, and his hair brushed - completely hiding any hint of his chiseled body with a neat outfit.

"Good call. Getting him to put his shirt back, and all," Cisco intoned, smirking, "The last thing we need is you swooning and passing out again."

Caitlin and Barry stifled smiles, and I felt warmth rise in my face.

"I would _not_ have passed out."

"You're certainly setting a new record for it though," Caitlin replied with an easy smile. I frowned at her.

"In my defense, it had been a pretty rough day."

"Artemis, there's nothing wrong with being a bit weak," Cisco murmured, facing away.

I scowled at all of them, before pulling my sleeve down, and rested my bare elbow against the table, fist open. Dr. Wells narrowed his eyes at me, and Cisco turned to me questioningly.

"I want for you all to re-evaluate your definitions of weak," I asserted, smiling warmly at a confused looking Cisco, "Come on, Ramon. Try me."

Cisco hesitated, before a smile spread on his face and he placed his hand in mine, before he was surprised by my stone-like, unmovable grip in our arm wrestling match. He tried to fight my hold, but I easily kept him from moving.

"Cisco, I asked for a challenge, not for you to hold my hand," I teased, enjoying the look of worried defeat in Cisco's adorable eyes.

"I'm not, I'm -"

 _SLAM!_

I gave Cisco an apologetic grin as he picked his weakened hand off of the table, looking at me with a newfound amazement.

"Let me try," Dr. Wells muttered, astonishing us all. Cisco, surprised at Dr. Wells' sudden remark, moved out of the way, as Wells took his place.

"No hard feelings, sir?" I asked innocently, as Dr. Wells locked his strong hand in mine. I didn't want to embarrass him too badly.

He was a man in his fifties, half crippled.

I was less than half his age, and was in pique physical condition.

"Don't be so cocky, Van Kleiss," Dr. Wells advised, before a grin appeared on his thin lips, "I'm just curious as to whether or not you're as spirited as you claim to be."

I smiled at the scientist, before he surprised me by quickly jerked my fist backwards, throwing it down almost all the way, but my reflexes stopped his unseen jolt, shocked at his surprise strength.

"Impressive," I noted, seeing Dr. Wells in a new light, "You've got a few up your sleeve."

"More than you could ever imagine," Dr. Wells remarked, trying again at my fist, but I wouldn't be surprised again. I smiled, watching Dr. Wells try to move my fixed arm with his determined one, his eyes hiding any cowering as he saw my smirk glint, before I easily put him down as well.

Startled, Dr. Wells rubbed his wrist and the back of his palm, staring at me with an unreadable expression, before he exhaled and smiled.

"Wow, sir," I gushed, looking at my own hand, which he had held so tightly, "You're much stronger than you look."

"Likewise," Dr. Wells answered, smiling, his eyes beaming behind his glasses, "Not too bad, for a _Van Kleiss_."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I inquired.

"It means that the Wells/Van Kleiss rivalry lives on," Dr. Wells answered, "And I hope it always will."

Strange compliment, but okay?

"Caitlin? Barry?" Cisco asked, turning to the two left.

Caitlin narrowed her eyes at me, and stepped forward, leaning down to pinch my cheek.

"You're pretty cute, I'll give you that," she murmured strangely, "Try _my_ hand at a silly little game, and I'll try _your_ bright little brain in a lobotomy."

I looked at her, trying to read her false smile, before it clicked to me, what she said.

"Oh, you're punny," I responded, laughing silently.

Caitlin's eyes flashed coldly for a second, before her smile turned kind.

"It wasn't a pun," she whispered, patting my shoulder before she turned around.

I tried my best not to gulp, and nodded at her.

"That leaves Barry," Dr. Wells called out, smiling at the handsome, tall, dark-haired, gorgeous, green-eyed, jaw-droppingly hot, model-like -

Smiling at _Barry,_ I corrected.

Foolish _brain_...

"Hm?" Barry voiced, before shaking his head at me, "Oh - no. It wouldn't be fair, seeing how I'm not-"

" _Scared_ , Allen?" I intoned casually, putting one knee over the other.

"Ohohoho!" Cisco enthused, jumping up and down, "She did the Draco! She did the _Draco_!"

"Nothing wrong with being a bit weak, am I right?"

Barry's head tipped forward in disbelief, and he scowled as he found himself seated in front me, Caitlin and Dr. Wells smiling with interest, Cisco crossing his arms and watching with a small grin.

Okay - to be fair, I knew I'd either lose horribly, or Barry would be a gentleman and let me win.

To be honest? I actually just wanted an excuse to hold his nice hand in mine...

Again, foolish _brain_.

"Ready?" Barry asked. I gave him my hand, and for a few seconds, nothing happened. Barry held my hand gently, but his forearm and elbow wouldn't move. He gave me a tiny smirk, and I immediately looked away.

Cisco pulled his phone out, and pointed it at us.

"Oh, don't mind me. Carry on."

I raised an eyebrow at him.

"I'm not going to photo-shop this moment in any way, shape or form. Really."

Barry faced me again and shrugged, before he put his free hand to his face and yawned.

 _Yawned._

I scowled at him.

"We don't have all day, Artemis," he murmured, the smirk returning, "What happened to your ego? Did you want a challenge or did you just want to, dare I say it?"

His comment caught me off guard, but not _that_ off guard. I held onto his hand fast, and firm.

"For the record, I _am_ competing against someone with enhanced physical abilities-"

Whatever I was about to say was interrupted by the sight of something quick and sharp flicking in front of my eyes, and I backed away, blinking, hearing fingers snap in my face and feeling the back of my fist gently hit the table at once, Barry's hand over mine.

Barry gave me a smug grin, and Dr. Wells clapped emotionlessly, though he grinned.

"Fingers faster than lightning, and _that's_ how he uses them on her," Cisco scorned softly, before everyone slowly turned to him with expectant looks on their faces.

"Excuse us?" Dr. Wells blazoned quietly, indignation in his eyes.

"I did _not_ mean it like that... Okay - I didn't mean to say it out _loud_ , but-"

"For the record, if there is going to be any - any _dating_ within the Team," Dr. Wells announced, talking carefully, as if he was unsure how to speak his thoughts, "Then we need to set a few ground rules. For starters, clothes stay _on_ , Barry, no matter what -"

"What if someone's shirt catches on fire?" Cisco asked, playful smile on his lips, "It's happened before, and we can't just let Barry's beautiful skin burn, you know-"

"Fine. Clothing removed in case of emergency," Dr. Wells snapped, "Secondly, no - no kissing."

"Not even on the cheek?" Barry asked, eyebrows furrowed.

"Nobody ever said anything against pecks on the cheek," Caitlin asserted.

Cisco shrugged in agreement.

"Fine," Dr. Wells barked, "No - no make-out sessions, then."

"Even if they're out of sight?" Barry joked. I found myself unable to suppress a shy smile at him.

" _No_ make-out sessions. Period," Dr. Wells snapped, "No flirting. And no teasing. No - no goo-goo eyes. No kissy faces. No lingering physical contact. No affectionate hand-holding. No racy remarks, and no inappropriate touching. _None_ of this. We're a professional lab, not a high school hallway. You both are adults, and I will not tolerate any inappropriate behavior."

"Are hugs okay?" Barry asked.

"Let me put it this way," Dr. Wells stated sharply, taking his glasses off before curling his lips in a sinister smile, "Whatever you two do to each other at the Lab, you _better_ be willing to do to the rest of us."

"Ouch," someone said.

"Dr. Wells, I didn't even do anything though," I responded softly, wondering why _I_ was being scolded.

"You didn't do anything _yet_ ," Barry affirmed with a wink, sending my insides into a frenzy again.

I rolled my eyes.

Cisco clapped his hands together and got up, pulling Barry away.

"Come on, we've still got cognitive tests to do," he reminded, and Caitlin, Dr. Wells and I followed.

The cognitive tests were fun, actually.

Barry had to engage in several different activities at once.

Dr. Wells played chess with him in his office, Cisco had table tennis set up in his workshop, Caitlin had a trivia card game in her medical labs, and I wrote out several difficult math and physics questions for him to solve.

"What?" I asked, when Caitlin and Cisco raised eyebrows at me penning in equations, "He's a nerd. It should be easy for him."

"Yeah, but my cognitive tests are usually meant to be... fun," Barry conceded.

"And you don't think linear algebra is fun?"

"Ummm..." Barry mumbled, scratching the back of his head, looking lost as I gave him a heartbroken look, "Linear algebra is buckets of fun."

"A walk in the park," Cisco added, giving me a fake smile, "Except you're barefoot. And the ground is on fire. And you're dying. Because the park is in hell."

Why does nobody like math?

I frowned, and put the piece of paper away, and pulled out the deck of cards again, before I hopped onto the table and placed one knee over the other, giving Barry a flirty, devilish grin as I shuffled the cards in my hand, "Okay - I haven't played cards in ages either," I conceded, "Though I should warn you. I've only been beaten _once_ at Blackjack, and that was the _first_ time I played it."

Barry smiled, placing his hands in his pocket as he leaned in.

"Guess you've never played cards with me, then."

I raised an eyebrow at him, before Dr. Wells cleared his voice, snapping us back to reality.

Caitlin called out from the medical labs that she had started the time, and Barry was off, racing around the lab like a bullet. Chess pieces could be heard shuffling, followed by the _thwack_ of ping pong balls hitting foam-covered paddles, Caitlin asked a random question and Barry shooting her a fast answer, ping pong _thwack_ again before Barry returned to me and played his cards before running off, letting the cards float like confetti around me as Barry sent them flying into the air, the wind nearly knocking me off of the table.

By the time he returned to me for our next rounds, I frowned at him as punishment for ruining an otherwise perfect card game between us, and dealt him the sheet of paper with the brutally difficult set of problems, and Barry sat down in the chair, worked halfway through a problem before flying back to Wells, circling around the lab until Caitlin hit the twenty minute mark and shouted for us all to pause.

We reconvened in the Cortex.

"He lost the chess match."

"Didn't do so well in tennis."

"Only got a third of the trivia correct."

I paused and studied the piece of paper.

"You clearly don't remember vectors and matrices, and these were pretty _basic_ fluid dynamics questions," I stated in a clipped, unimpressed voice, before putting on a warm smile anyway, "I gave you follow-through credit, though, so it's not as bad as it should be."

Barry pulled a fist through the air and cheered before clasping an arm around me, and Dr. Wells rolled his eyes.

"Don't show favoritism, Van Kleiss," he urged, "Barry needs to be at the top of his game."

"674 miles per hour isn't game enough for you?" I challenged, putting my own arm around Barry. Who did Dr. Wells think he was? Didn't he think this was amazing?

Why was he so downgrading? As if _he_ could easily go faster...

Dr. Wells pinched the space between his eyes.

"If he falters in battle due to a lack of quick-thinking, it's not a risk I'm willing to take."

Barry pressed his lips together in an unsure response, before turning to me with a smile.

"Do you wanna go grab some ice cream?"

"I don't see why not?"

"That's perfect," Barry said, leaning down to pick me up with an adorable smile, "There's this _awesome_ ice cream bar in University Town, and they have _such_ a great variety. You have to try it."

"Bring some back for me?" Cisco asked hopefully once Barry had me in his arms.

"Barry, you do know I've bought a car, right?" I asked, noticing how Dr. Wells was glowering at us for breaking his 'no lingering physical contact' rule, and how Cisco wanted ice cream too, "It's parked right outside. We can bring them with us."

Barry raised an eyebrow at me and zoomed out of the Cortex anyway, planting a kiss on my cheek as we entered the nighttime city outside, myself laughing in the comfort of his arms.

* * *

 **[Barry's POV]**

We got kicked out of the ice cream shop.

The staff at Fenton's Creamery began to worry when I ordered my 7th Super Chocolate Sundae - which was meant to serve 5 people, not one - and a waiter began to complain that we were somehow playing a prank on them. Artemis giggled adorably at the strange circumstance, having barely eaten a two scoops of her own ice cream, only adding to said waiter's suspicions, and we soon found ourselves outside, sitting next to each other at an unused outdoor table.

"Here," she offered, smiling as she held up a spoon of strawberry near my face.

"Haven't I eaten enough?" I joked, though I let her spoon-feed me.

"Seeing how you were willing to order an _eighth_ sundae, I _kind_ of doubt it," she riposted sweetly, thumbing away excess ice cream from the side of my mouth.

"I can't help it. This is my favorite place to go," I admitted, turning in my chair to face her as I pulled her chair near mine, "You could eat all the ice cream in the world here and still be hungry for more."

"I took note of that, Mr. Allen," she observed, stroking my cheek before she dropped a kiss on my forehead. I smiled and was about to kiss her back, when she crumbled the empty cup of ice cream before shooting it into a nearby trash can.

"Perfect shot," I commented, facing her again. She smiled shyly.

"You call that a perfect shot? Trust me - _real_ victory is becoming an official scientist at the Lab today, and being here with you now," she murmured, taking my hand in between both of hers, placing a kiss on my knuckles before holding my hand against her cheek.

I sighed, and just stopped for a moment, and rested my head on my extended arm, with my hand in hers, looking up at her.

"You okay?" She asked softly, reaching with her free hand to caress my face. As if _I_ was the one with the huge black eye. With the dark bruises around _my_ neck. The baseball-sized contusion on _my_ forehead.

Yet still happy to be with me, nonetheless.

"Dying of guilt on the inside, but other than that, I'm just fine."

She smiled sadly and leaned in closer to me, her hand at the back of my neck now.

"Barry, it's okay," she answered, a soft finger tracing my ear, "You know it's not your fault. You and the rest of the team had the best intentions at heart."

"If Singh hadn't assigned me night dispatch duty yesterday, I _never_ would have known, or been able to save you. You could've died."

"Well, aren't you the optimist today?" She teased, softly kissing my face, "And it's not your fault, okay? Dr. Wells was just a bit confused. How was he supposed to know that Freak Show in Yellow had it in for me - for _us_?"

I mumbled something insensible in responsible.

She smiled at me, kissed my cheek again. She stood up, pulling me up by the hands. I frowned as she towed me away from the table.

"Quit moping. You're literally killing the vibe," she jested playfully, knitting her fingers through my own as she led me away, "Come on - we gotta go."

I pushed my heels into the ground and wrapped my fingers around her own, pulling Artemis back to me before I easily wrapped her frame in a close hug. She sighed slowly and hugged me back.

"I'm so glad you finally know," I said, waking up from my love-induced trance.

She pulled partially away from me and smiled, placing her hand at the side of my face again.

"I'm glad I know too," she admitted, "I was barely able to sleep at night because of it. And I literally haven't been able to stop thinking about you all day. It's like - I'm just - I actually don't have any words to describe how I see you. All I know if that you are easily the most awe-inspiring person I've ever met, and will probably ever meet."

A cool kind of feeling - a unique combination of euphoria and admiration - settled through me as her words finally hit my conscience.

"And - to be honest, what I just said applies before yesterday too. I've always thought you were-"

Tilting my head to the side, I closed my eyes and leaned down, arresting her with a passionate kiss. She made a little moaning sound at first, gripping my shoulders in astonishment, before the surprise wore away and she relaxed again in my arms, kissing me back just as fervently. The feel of her soft, delicious lips grazing against mine sent my heart melting right down to my feet.

I tightened my arms around her, and leaned my upper body forward a bit, so she was efficiently and helplessly entwined in my arms as she arched her body towards me, myself towering over her, dip-style.

I couldn't remember the last time I made out with someone like that.

Heck, I couldn't even remember my own name.

She finally pulled away, much to my reluctance, and broke into a happy smile that was far more rewarding than any kiss could be, and I put my forehead ahainst hers.

Those hypnotizing little specks of gold in her eyes...

"Let's make it official," I murmured, wanting to kiss her again, "I just like having things squared away. And I want for you to know that I feel the same way. What do you say?"

She nodded. She then rose on her toes and softly kissed my forehead, and I placed my hands at either side of her face when she lowered herself, her arms around my shoulders.

"Promise me that you'll call me if anything happens? Instead of the police?" I pleaded quietly, seeing her smile grow, "I mean - hopefully you've had more than _enough_ persuasion that I can look after you, by now? Better than anyone else could?"

"I will. I'll call you. I promise," She answered, and a tension inside me released, and I granted her another kiss.

"Aaaand cut," a disembodied male voice stated, "I think we have more than enough proof, Iris."

Artemis gasped, before we both turned to the entrance to the restaurant about 15 feet away from us, where Eddie and Iris are standing, grinning, as they lowered their phones. Artemis blushed, embarrassed, and buried herself against my chest, covering her face with both hands.

"Guys, seriously?" I called out, putting my arm over her.

"No, not _seriously_ ," Iris chirped, looking down at her phone, " _Lovingly._ Eddie, how come _you_ never confessed your feelings to me like this? That was literally so adorable!"

"I agree," Eddie answered her, pocketing his own phone, "We've _all_ been waiting for this. Nice work, you two. Oh man - they're going to love this back at the station..."

Artemis scowled as she pulled away from me.

"What happened to your face?" Iris asked suddenly, worry painting itself in her expression. Eddie looked up and gasped.

"Science experiment gone wrong," Artemis assured with a small laugh, "I wasn't wearing my goggles. Silly me."

Eddie and Iris looked bewildered at the damage.

Artemis turned around and stalked towards Eddie, some of the red washed out of her cheeks and replaced with impatience.

"Can I see it, at least?" She asked, "The video you made? How much of it did you get?"

"Oh... quite a lot, actually," Eddie responded proudly, taking his phone out again. Artemis stood on the other side of Eddie, and Iris held his arm eagerly as he held his phone out before them. I joined them, and watched as Eddie played almost crystal clear footage of Artemis pulling me out of my chair, chastising me.

 _(Quit moping. You're literally killing the vibe. Come on - we gotta go.)_ Eddie then fast-forwarded again the video ahead - right to when I shut Artemis's heartfelt confession up with the first of the two kisses.

To be honest, we looked pretty good together, and Artemis looked up at me, probably thinking the same thing, some of the blush creeping right back. She turned back to Eddie again.

"Wait - hey, you skipped parts of it," she muttered playfully, hitting the screen twice with her fingertips.

"Wait, Artemis, don-" Eddie protested, trying to pull his phone away, but too late - my super cool new girlfriend was too quick for him.

"Oh, _shoot_ ," Artemis proclaimed innocently, "I am _SO_ sorry. I did _NOT_ mean to delete it. God, Eddie, I can't apologi-"

Eddie scowled at her, but Iris cheered, and high-fived her boyfriend.

"Lucky for you I made an extra copy," she asserted with a cool wink at us. Artemis rolled her eyes as Eddie wore a smug look.

"I'll get it from you, Iris," I promised jokingly, "Just you wait."

"Woahhh," Eddie intoned complacently, "Publicly threatening an innocent citizen-"

"Shut up, Thawne," Artemis interrupted with a small smile, before she linked her arm through mine, "What brings you both here?"

"The city's not as big as we'd like to think, Artemis," Eddie answered. I chuckled in agreement.

"And besides, who doesn't love Fenton's?" Iris pointed out, taking Eddie's hand before dropping a kiss on his face, "You could eat all the ice cream in the world here and still be hungry for more."

###

After Eddie and Iris hounded us down to schedule that dinner together, ("It can be our first double date," Iris teased. "You can't avoid us forever, you know," Eddie added.), I swept Artemis off of her feet and sped off to where we really needed to go tonight - the South, to see if Andrew was still alive.

"No," she whimpered, once we arrived at the corner of Livermore and Ashbury. I looked up and gasped in shock.

All that was left of the building was the metallic structure that I assume is - _was_ \- the architectural frame. The rest has... been burned away?

"Do you think he's alive?" Artemis whispered, tears forming in her eyes at the shocking new sight.

"He's made of smoke. Should be fine," I assured, though even I wasn't sure what to make of this.

Did the Reverse Flash destroy him, somehow? Did Andrew have a limit to how much spoke he could spew, before he lost strength? Who burnt this building down?

I followed Artemis to the side of the building where the entrance was, and we were about to enter, when we heard a deep, structural ground inside, followed by a loud smashing sound over our heads. A floor was falling through from above, I realized.

It would destroy the rest of the building, and we were directly underneath it.

I grabbed Artemis around the stomach and easily darted away to about a hundred yards or so, where we watched the last remains of the building powerfully collapse into a giant mountain of blackened metallic beams, ash, and debris, a mushroom cloud of dust and ash billowing upwards before disappearing with the night..

"No," Artemis whispered in defeat, falling to her knees.

"Hey," I cajoled, sitting beside down beside her, as I tried to take her into my arms. She didn't budge, and stared at the dilapidated ruins with dead eyes.

"Artemis, he could still be alive," I maintained. She slowly turned towards me, and I saw fear flash through her eyes.

"He's just a kid," she mumbled, kneeing forward into my open arms, "I led the man in yellow right to him. If anything's happened to him, it's my fault."

'He's not dead. We don't know that," I soothed, trying my best to comfort her. He couldn't be dead. He - he was indestructible.

I could only imagine how heartbroken Artemis would be if we found evidence that the man in yellow killed him.

From what I had seen, the two cared for each other deeply. She'd spend her free time with him so he wouldn't be lonely, and he offered to let her use him for her experiments. They looked after each other, and he'd let her stay with him when she'd be too afraid to go home. She had vowed to help him get rid of his abilities, and both were incredibly attached to each other - the older sister and younger brother they never had.

Yup. Let's hope he wasn't dead.

"Come on," she murmured, taking both of my hands as we walked back to the destroyed heap of rubble, "We _have_ to find him. I can't just-"

She yelped as she stumbled on something, and I easily caught her with my speed before she hit the ground. Instinctively, she turned around to see what it was she tripped on.

Inside of a loose root, or a stone, or a pit in the ground, we saw a pair of dark gray shoes, at the feet of the body of a skinny teenager's frame. Andrew had his hands in his pockets, and wore a smile on his ghostly face.

"Hey there, Shorty," he murmured, and held his arms open as Artemis scrambled off of the ground before tackling him in a hug, holding her head against his shoulder, her arms around his torso, "That was quite the little confession."

We nodded at each other in an acknowledged greeting as Andrew continued to hug her, before she pulled away and tried to punch him in the face. She stumbled again as he phased out of his solid form, the momentum sending her forward before she caught herself.

She turned and glared at the boy, who had reappeared behind her. She growled and lunged for him again, but he chuckled as he easily held her off with a hand in her face, staying right out of her angry reach.

"Oh, come on," he joked, "Don't be like that. I thought we were friends."

"I thought you were dead," she muttered, stepping away from him, huffing, "And you thought it was funny to just stand there and listen to us say that?"

"Hey - I came over as soon as I sensed _his_ physical signature," he defended, pointing right at me, before saluting, "Mr. _Bae_ Allen. It's always a pleasure to see you."

"Likewise," I responded, as Andrew walked over to clasp my hand in a friendly handshake, "Please don't call me that."

Artemis widened her eyes as she saw the two of us accost each other.

"Wait," she inquired, clearly confused, "You two _know_ each other?"

"'Course we do," I answered coyly, enjoying Artemis's disbelieving reaction.

"Yeah," Andrew conceded, "How do you think you got home all those times you fell asleep at my - wait... Artemis, do you know who he is?"

"What?" She asked quietly.

"Umm. _Him_ ," he replied, pointing at me, "Do you know who he is?"

"Why wouldn't I?" She remarked, taking my hand, "His name is Barry Allen. He's my boyfriend."

"No, but, like, do you know who he _really_ is?"

"I mean - his actual name is Bartholomew?" Artemis answered, winking at me.

"No. Not _that,"_ Andrew countered, "Do you know what he can _do_? What he _does_?"

"He can solve crimes. He's a crime scene investigator. What else would he do?"

"No - I meant more specifically. Outside his line of work-"

"Forensics analyst."

"No. What he does behind the police's backs - oh. My. God. Do you actually not know?"

"Yeah. He wastes time on his computer checking Facebook and watching Netflix while he should be working. His captain _hates_ him for it."

"What?" Andrew gasped, throwing his arms up at each of her witty responses, before sighing at me, "Oh. Okay. Sure. I see. Sorry, Barry. I didn't -"

"He can also reach speeds of up to 674 miles per hour," Artemis claimed, laughing at Andrew's state of fluster as she put her arm around my back, "So tell me. How _do_ you know each other?"

"Well..."

"You once called me while at his place, and I had Cisco trace your location and I found you with him," I explained, all evidence of laughter disappearing from her face, "We've known each other since."

She grew appalled, before she turned to Andrew, irritated.

"You known who the Flash was this entire time, and you didn't tell me?!" She accused, pulling out of my arms, "I've been trying to put him behind bars, Andrew!"

"What was I supposed to do?" He protested, frustrated, "You had an absolutely undeterred vengeance to take him down, and he told me you'd be in danger if you found out. And all the meanwhile you've been going so - so madly in love with _'how cute he is'_ and ' _how nice his arms are_ ', so I was figuratively stuck. There wasn't anything I could have done. Don't blame _any_ of this on me."

She exhaled quickly and scowled.

"You think I have nice arms?" I asked curiously.

"How often have you two seen each other?" She asked, angry.

"I mean - he checked up on you pretty often," Andrew admitted, quieting down, scratching the back of his head, "I didn't mind. I told him if you woke up when he was around, it would be his own fault if you found out. He's been pretty worried about you. These last few weeks have been agonizing for everyone, really."

"What happened after we left last night?" I asked, remembering the man in yellow.

"Well, right when I almost had him, he somehow left. Next thing I knew, the building was on fire," Andrew described with uncertainty, "I managed to absorb the fumes, and that sucked the flames out too, but by morning, the building was pretty much gone."

"Why wasn't this announced on TV?" Artemis pressed, "Or in the news? A building was _burnt_ down for crying out loud."

Andrew scoffed.

"The slums aren't exactly the most important thing in the city. Nobody's really paid attention to them in a _very_ long time," he answered, "Which is why they made for the perfect hideout. And I couldn't exactly go running to the cops about this..."

Oh. Right - he was still a wanted criminal, even if he was falsely accused.

"Can you sense him?" Artemis asked, "The other speedster? Can you tell us where to find him?"

"I - no, I can't, actually," He answered dejectedly, "I can't sense any abnormal metahuman signatures, other than Barry's. I've been trying to keep an eye out for him all day, but he's disappeared altogether."

Artemis and I fell silent.

The speedster had gone into hiding, and a metahuman who could trace bodily electric signatures couldn't trace him.

What would we do?

"Where will you go now?" I questioned.

Andrew froze, before he shrugged.

"I - I don't know. I haven't really thought of that."

"You do realize I have an extra guest bedroom, right?" Artemis reminded, "And I definitely have no qualms about-"

"You can't keep a dangerous metahuman in a fully occupied apartment building, Artemis," he replied solemnly, "Especially if the police already suspect you of working with me. You won't be able to help me, or anyone else, much if you're behind bars."

"He's right," I found myself admitting, facing Artemis again, "Keeping him with you is too dangerous, even if he can be trusted. There's gotta be another way."

The three of us fell silent.

"Wait," Artemis announced, her eyes lighting up behind her glasses. She took Andrew by the arm, and looked to me, "I'm sorry - could you stay here? I have something I need to discuss with him. It won't be too long, but I've figured something important out."

I shrugged, and watched as the two of them walked away from me until they were too far to be heard. They argued and discussed incessantly for about ten or so minutes, before they returned to me, smiling.

"So... Do I get to know what it was you were talking about?" I asked eagerly.

"Nope!" Andrew chirped, "But you will, soon enough. Shorty here is one hell of a genius. She's got a plan."

Artemis smiled at him.

"You know where to go, right?" She asked.

"I won't be going anywhere else," he responded, "See ya, lovebirds."

And just like that - he disappeared from where he was standing altogether.

Artemis faced me and smiled, squeezing her hands together.

"Well, this has been some week," she declared.

"Right?" I agreed, taking her hands, "We should probably take a minute to relax, or something, before something else happens."

"You know, speaking of relaxing, I heard there was a football game today," she quipped, smiling, "The Central City Chargers vs. the Ravens."

"There was indeed," I affirmed, returning the smile.

"I'm guessing you might not have gotten the chance to watch it, seeing how you've been busy almost all day," she continued, tracing the side of my neck as I pulled her in closer, putting my hands at her waist, "I _might_ have recorded it on my DVR. Just in case you wanted to watch it with me, and judge whether or not I'm actual football buddy material..."

"I suppose that means you finally did that research?" I teased, "And that you know what a runningback is now?"

"I _may_ have tried to squeeze it into my schedule," she allowed, closing the distance between us for a short but sweet kiss that lit up every nerve in my body. The touch of her lips lingered on mine after she pulled away, and I put my forehead to hers, enamored with how crazy I was going for her.

"Well, I'm going to take you up on that offer," I answered, quickly securing my arms around her, turning her so I was holding her bridal-style, "Let's go see how much you know."

She smiled as she placed her arms around my neck, and I pushed back into the city, unable to think of anything other than the woman in my arms.

* * *

 **Please leave a review!**

 **I know there wasn't much "action" in this chapter, but I assure you - the second half of the story will NOT disappoint. That's where the plot REALLY gets going, so stay tuned, and thank you ALL once again ~**

 **\- DBV**


	18. Resonance

**Thank you all SO much for your reviews and support! This story would be nothing without you all, and I apologize deeply for the long wait.**

 **Sending lots of love to my wonderful beta, ArtChaser. Seriously. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Her story, "Abandoned", is one of the greatest stories this website has been blessed with. Check it out. ASAP.**

 **Anyway, flash-forward to one month later, story-wise :P**

 **It's almost the end of July/beginning of August. The story began in late May/June, to remind you all.**

* * *

 **[Harrison Wells' POV]**

It had been approximately 3 or 4 weeks since Artemis and Barry began dating, and to be honest, I didn't mind.

So long as they didn't disrupt the Timeline, that is...

However, Gideon still showed me the same newspaper article everyday, confirming my safety, so I let the two be.

Having Artemis on the team made everything less stressful, on my part. I was able to watch her more closely, and there was almost zero tension at the Lab.

Caitlin and Cisco adored her to pieces, and her friendship with them grew even stronger. She began to trust me more as well, and I grew fond of her in turn, felt proud of having her around, enjoyed her company, began to see her as the other daughter I never had, alongside Caitlin.

And Barry?

Barry's performance seemed to improve quite a lot with her around. He had finally managed to break the sound barrier, and was easily approaching 800 mph.

Should he falter in battle, all we had to do was hand of the comms over to Artemis, and everything would be set. The woman was an expert strategist, it turned out, and nobody gave quite the motivating pep talk like your significant other could.

Nonetheless, Barry had a new motivating factor now, and had I known this would be so, I would _never_ have kept Artemis off of the team in the first place.

He was absolutely captivated by her, and she returned the feelings in every single way. The monitoring cameras I had placed in their homes and around their favorite places in the city revealed that the two spent almost every free second they had with each other.

And it was quite the adorable relationship.

They were always smiling and laughing with each other, knew exactly what to say to get under the other's skin, went on several nice dates, had quirky inside jokes that left the rest of us wondering what was wrong with them.

Both had an innate light that grew brighter when they were with the other, one that we all thought would fade after a little while but surprisingly _didn't_. It was that shared dorkiness, the joy of having found someone so similar, the delight of having found someone so special - someone that understood - that drew the two of them so exponentially closer to each other.

But I knew better. The relationship they had was founded upon something much stronger.

It was a strong drive and an unhampered dedication to use their abilities for good - Barry with his alter ego and his CSI, Artemis through her work in physics and through supporting him as the Flash - that united these two. Of course, their hungry search for answers regarding their mothers' deaths and the strong mentality to keep those around them safe from metahuman threats also did well to glue them together.

It warmed my heart to see such a strong bond, such loyalty between two people.

It was quite an adorable relationship indeed, _if_ you factored out the fact that both of these people would try to murder me one day. _After_ they would try to murder each other.

I was certain of this, I would _watch_ them battle each other in the future. _How_ this came to be - I still didn't know, and Gideon had no answers either.

There was no sign, no trace, of the woman Artemis was destined to be, and judging by how strong things were going between her and Allen, I could never imagine how she would betray him.

...

So she called it a hyper-electron, then?

It made sense. Vankleissium did not exist in the future, because it had been renamed. But even so, hyper-electrons were dubbed urban legends. Fiction, in the science world. A tall tale to inspire new and aspiring scientists, my colleagues said. A particle with uncontrollably powerful properties - It was denounced as impossible to create, a _joke_ even.

But I knew there was nothing to laugh about.

Artemis worked dutifully in her lab - and whatever it was she was doing would have serious outcomes. She kept the details of her project a complete secret from myself and the rest of the Team. She added extra locks and removed the security cameras in her lab, and would work nonstop, sometimes through the night, until Barry, Caitlin or Cisco knocked on the door until she opened it, and would drag her out by her arms, ignoring her annoyed protests.

I had the assuring ability to phase into her lab at any given time, but I let it be. What she was doing would give me what I wanted, and vice versa. She was powered by her fear for my return, and Barry trained more due to the same reason.

I walked past my fireplace into my kitchen and poured myself a glass of condensed wine (a unique, comforting concoction I had brewed myself - it's actually powerful enough get a speedster drunk!) and clicked a button on my remote that played soothing opera from the other room. I sighed, ready to unwind, before my sigh turned into a growl at the sound of my phone buzzing twice, indicating a call.

 _Those stupid kids._

What did they want now?

Cisco would be at the Lab right now, toiling away in his workshop, Caitlin was at home reading some stupid book she had been telling me about, Barry was zooming in and out of outfits in his room for no apparent reason, Artemis was supposed to be at home, probably catching up on _The Walking Dead_ , having fallen in love with the show ever since Cisco introduced her to it.

Why would _any_ of them need to call me now?

Swallowing my annoyance, I pulled my phone out.

Funny.

I didn't recognize the number.

I answered anyway.

"Harrison Wells," I stated clearly, before I heard a sharp, electronic sucking sound on the other line - or was it from outside?

"Hello," I called out, slightly worried now.

 _(We both know what you did,)_ a young male voice muttered.

A ghostly chill flew through my spine.

Goddammit, not _him._

The sound I had heard earlier grew louder, clearer, as if it was nearby.

He was _here._

I hung up immediately and retrieved my gun, waiting to see him appear from behind a wall, or out of one of my galleries, willing to shoot and take him out with x7 if needed.

 _(It's time to pay the Piper!)_ the same male voice warned again, as if his voice was everywhere in my home.

The glass ceiling, I realized, pointing the cocked gun up, before the panels all shattered one by one into small, sharp pieces onto the ground.

Instinctively, I used my speed to get out of harm's way, the power flickering from within me, before a disembodied, shrilling vibration pushed into me, powerfully throwing me against a wall.

* * *

 **[Barry's POV]**

"How about now?" I asked, zooming downstairs to show Joe my new outfit. Or rather, my 34th new outfit.

Joe arched an unsatisfied eyebrow towards me from behind his newspaper.

"Is it - is it not good?" I inquired, peering down at my dress shirt, sweater and jeans.

Joe sighed as he pulled his gun out from the back of his belt and pointed it at me, dropping his newspaper onto his knees.

"I told you I'd shoot you if you changed your clothes again," he muttered.

"You're right - it's a bit nerdy," I replied, angling my feet to the sides, "It's the shoes, isn't it? Or the sweater? I bet it's the sweater."

"Honestly, Barry, you probably spend more time getting ready than Artemis does," Iris chided, appearing from around the wall with a can of soda.

I mumbled a response before I jogged back up the stairs to my room, and changed one last time into what I hoped would be the best outfit, carefully brushed through my hair for the 35th time, before I said goodbye to Joe and Iris, and broke into a maddeningly fast run, arriving at Artemis's apartment in seconds with a bouquet of gorgeous pink roses in my hands, quietly cheering that nothing caught on fire.

I eagerly rang the doorbell.

Two minutes passed.

No response.

I rang again.

No response.

 _Was she even at home?_

I knocked one last time, before I entered anyway using my STAR Labs keys, and could hear scuffling sounds coming from her room.

"I swear to _god_ , Cisco, if that's you, I do _not_ have any food lef-" she scorned, poking her head out from her door before intaking a quick breath of air, as if I had scared her.

Her black hair was in a messy bun, her face covered in a white cream. She was wearing an old worn-out shirt that I recognized to be one she usually wore to the Lab.

In other words, she wasn't ready.

I smiled awkwardly at her. "Hey."

"Hi - Barry," she murmured with a gulp, "You're, um, very early."

"Am I?" I asked kindly, checking my watch.

7:23 pm.

"I'm actually almost half an hour late," I mused, "We were supposed to be out by 7?"

She tried her best to stifle a apologetic smile.

"I - I'm sorry. I only got back from the Lab a little while ago," she admitted, "I got caught up in a few more time-sensitive tests than I thought. You're going to want to, um, wait a second or two."

"Iris thought _I_ was the one who took a long time to get ready," I joked, consenting to wait.

She cracked a small grin.

"Well, I don't have super speed," she responded, shrugging, "And, I mean, I want to look nice for you, you know."

"You know you're fine as you are..." I answered, trying to be sweet.

She cracked her signature wily grin, indicating incoming sarcasm.

"Great! I'll just go out with this goop all over my face, and in my ugly striped blouse, while you're all dressed up like the gentleman you are," she retorted, "I swear I'll be out in two minutes."

I smiled and let her be, teasing her that I had the timer for two minutes going as I counted down the seconds out loud.

I was silenced by a harmless pillow thrown playfully at me from her room before she ducked back inside, and I laughed as I turned away and waited on her couch in her living room.

In a few minutes or so, I heard the door open up again behind me, and before I could turn around, I felt a pair of cool hands cover my eyes, gently lean my head back as she softly kissed my mouth, before removing her hands and wrapping her arms around my shoulders from behind.

"You look really nice," she murmured, hugging my shoulders, "Which is no surprise."

"As do you," I replied, bringing her around me so I could get a clear look at her. Her face was natural, save for hints of makeup at her eyes and a bit of lipstick on her lips, and had let her dark hair down, folded in neat, luscious curls all over one shoulder. She had changed into an elegant pale blue sleeveless dress that was sheer at the neckline and narrow at the waist before flowing gracefully down to her knees, simple heels at her feet.

Breathless, I watched as she picked up the pink roses from beside me, delicately sniffing them, before giving me a stunning smile and setting them on the coffee table.

She sat down next to me, smoothing the skirt of her dress over her knees.

"So, first things first, thank you again for the roses. I'm running out of vases for them," she intoned with that smile of hers, placing a slender arm over my shoulders, "And secondly, where are you whisking me off to tonight?"

My mind blanked...

"I... There was an improv show down in Lawrence Hills we could check out... Or we could just head over to the drive-in theater...And I heard there was a new exhibit at the art museum... Or maybe..."

"You wanna just go for dinner?" She asked quietly, her brown eyes looking amazing without her glasses, "Maybe go for a quiet walk after?"

"I don't see why not," I commented, moving my arm over her shoulders as I pulled her in closer, feeling relieved - and slightly embarrassed for not having anything actually planned.

"So... What is it you're working on in that lab of yours that's keeping us from doing this more often?" I teased, laying down on the sofa with my head in her lap.

She smiled down at me and smoothed a hand through my hair.

"It's not something I can tell you about, Barry," she conceded, leaning down to drop a kiss on the crest of my forehead, "But it's something I've been spending a lot of time on. Maybe it's time I take a break, and spend some time on a few other things."

I smiled, and she leaned down to kiss me again, her delicate lips brushing over mine, letting a cool, tingly feeling rise in my chest.

She pulled away and smiled at me, a thin finger tracing over my face down to my neck.

"What are you thinking of?" I found myself asking, my gaze lost in her dark eyes. She placed a hand on my chest.

"To be honest?" She responded, her tone careful, "Do you ever think we're moving too fast?"

"Not really?" I joked, "Dr. Wells says 813 miles per hour is still pretty slow for me."

She raised an are-you-serious eyebrow at me, before she broke into a smile and shook her head in disbelief.

"I was being serious," she chided, tapping a finger against my nose, "You know I've never been in a relationship before, so I can't say I know how things should go, but you and I have clicked pretty well, and I'm actually really happy with the way things have been working out between us."

I sat up and pulled her into my arms, and she gave me a quick peck on my cheek before wrapping her arms around me.

"Remember back when you said I was the _last_ person on earth you'd ever fall for?" I teased, unable to fight the urge to do so.

She looked away, timid annoyance flashing in her expression as she blushed.

"And that time you brother-zoned me?" I continued, leaning in towards her as she tilted away from me, enjoying her embarrassed reaction, "And that time when you were so determined not to like me that we ended up going on a romantic dinner for two as friends?"

"Barry - stop," she mumbled shyly, trying not to laugh - which really did make her smile look all the more beautiful.

"What about the time when-"

"The time when I was a new scientist at STAR Labs and you'd leave your keys behind on purpose so I could come visit you?" She teased back, poking my side.

"Okay - that was _not_ on purpose," I maintained, letting her plant a quick kiss on my mouth, "It was... just a coincidence. I leave my things at the Lab a lot."

"Right. Getting struck by lightning was a coincidence too, then."

I rolled my eyes before I pulled her in and leaned back, reclining back against the arm rest with her in my arms.

"By that account, you moving to Central City was a coincidence as well," I riposted, placing kisses along the dimples in her neck, eliciting more smiles from her.

"No, that was Caitlin. And Dr. Wells," she answered, nuzzling herself closer to me, "If they hadn't contacted me, I'd never have moved here. And I'd never have met you. And my life would be ordinary, boring, and uneventful. And then I'd probably never get the chance to play control freak during our operations."

I chuckled a little, one hand cradling her jaw as I dropped a quick kiss on her forehead.

Artemis could get a bit domineering, especially at the Lab when we took down metas, but it never came off as rude.

I called it "quick thinking."

Caitlin called it "a necessary resilience."

Wells praised that it was "a combination of raw talent and unhindered dedication to the team and to the city, maybe even to Mankind itself."

Cisco preferred "Barry's Overprotective Girlfriend Syndrome."

"Barry?" She murmured, propping herself on her elbows so she was looking down at me, one hand moving down to hold mine.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"If I'd never have moved here, I'd never have met you. And I'm not sure how else I can describe how grateful I am that I did, and much you mean to me. Things... Things just seem so certain when I'm with you, and I've only been infinitely happier since we've been together, and I've never felt so grounded in a decision I've made before."

She paused again.

My insides twisted themselves as I watched a shy hand fold a strand of dark hair behind her ear, and she took a deep breath, before giving me a shy, but radiant smile.

"What I'm trying to say is - I love you."

She nervously knit her hands, and bit the side of her bottom lip, avoiding eye contact with me, lest she be criticized for her impulsive, hurried confession.

My heartbeat shot up as her words finally kicked in.

I thought of these past few weeks, and how memorable each second has been, how reinvigorated I've felt knowing that I've had someone like her in my life.

I curled my arm around her and pulled her in again for more kisses.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

After a satisfying round of relentless making out, Barry took me to dinner at a small, but cute, vintage/nautical-themed restaurant by the oceanside wharf and afterwards, as promised, we were enjoying a peaceful nighttime walk on the boardwalk together.

He hadn't told me he loved me back.

I kept worrying if my stupid, unrestrained confession had somehow ruined the evening.

Did I say it too soon?

Did he not feel the same?

Had I wrecked our date?

But it was a perfect night - the dark ocean glittering beyond the railing and underneath the boardwalk, stars cast above, a huge, full moon shining, the cold, salty sea air - and my dorky superhero boyfriend babbling innocently beside me, our hands locked together.

"I honestly think it's so messed up that they opened up a seafood restaurant right next to the ocean," Barry declared.

 _He hadn't told me he loved me back._

"I thought you loved seafood?" I answered, trying to focus on his words, not to worry about earlier.

 _He didn't have to tell me he loved me. He had no obligation to, and it was my fault I said it so soon - after only a few weeks of dating? For reals, Artemis?_

"I do love seafood, but come _on_ ," Barry replied, shrugging his shoulders, aghast, "They literally just extricate the animals from their homes, then murder them in a kitchen! It isn't even a proper fishery!"

"Since when have you been ardent about marine animal rights, Mr. 12 Bowls of Clam Chowder?" I teased.

 _A few weeks of dating, yeah, but dating nonstop_, I reminded my conscience. _We'd been spending almost every second together, and my heart would implode on itself if he continued to woo me any further._

He hadn't told me he loved me back. Yes, he didn't have to, but after what we had together, and how dedicated he seemed to be, I'd have thought the feelings would be returned...

"Not having a proper fish farm damages not only the oceanic environment, but also the fish's biological _life_ cycle, Artemis," Barry pressed urgently, "Scientifically speaking, a fish's entire life is dependent on the ocean's current, the water's temperature and the nutrients present in their habitats. It doesn't matter _what_ kind of fish you're hunting for - illicitly pulling fish out of the water like that is going to affect every-"

Yay. Another adorable nerdy rant. There were times when his scientific tirades were unbelievably adorable. There were times when they were deemed necessary. Being a geek myself, I usually listened with full attention, sometimes chimed in, and if it ever got annoying, he had given me full permission to shut him up, preferably with a kiss.

But I just wasn't feeling it tonight.

A walk along the nighttime boardwalk overlooking the sea had more potential than a mere diatribe concerning the fundamentals of aquatic habitats.

"Artemis?" Barry asked softly, snapping me back to reality.

"I - yes?"

"I've been ranting about fisheries for almost five minutes now, and you've been pretty quiet. You've neither agreed with what I said, nor told me to shut up," Barry murmured, voice full of kind concern, "Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine," I answered automatically, forcing myself to look up at him, give him a reassuring smile.

 _You hadn't told me you loved me back, and it was crushing me..._

"I've noticed that you've been kind of tense all evening, since we left your apartment," he inquired gently, "Did you not like the restaurant?"

"I - _no_ , Barry," I responded, feeling overwhelmingly ashamed for making him feel guilty, "The dinner was perfect."

He stopped walking and pulled me by the hand so I was closer to him.

God, he was _stunning._

"Are you not having fun?" He asked sadly.

"Barry - I'm having tons of fun," I protested meekly, holding onto his hand.

He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Then what's keeping you from being your normal, chirpy self?" He inquired softly, putting his arm around my waist, "I've never seen you like this. What's wrong?"

"Nothing, Barry!" I attempted, trying not to laugh as he teased his hand at a certain spot along my side - where I was hopelessly ticklish.

"Is it me?" He asked quickly, his voice edgy, "Oh my god. Did I do something stupid? Is - is it my shoes? It's the sweater. I asked Joe if it was the sweater and he told me he'd shoot me."

"What?" I asked, confused, laughing at the insensible and random words he was saying, "No, I - no, you look _perfect_. I promise nothing's wrong. I - I'm really sorry if it came off that way. I - I don't know what's gotten into me."

 _Van Kleiss - do not mess up the one good thing you have going in your life._

 _Fix this. Now._

He frowned.

"You know if there is anything or any _one_ bothering you, I'm _more_ than willing to show them their very own Pipeline chamber."

I smiled, and stood up on my tip toes to answer him up with a soft kiss, our fingers tied in each other's hands at our sides. He freed his hands from my grasp and gave me a comforting hug as he kissed me back.

I was being foolish. _So_ so foolish. And immature. He didn't owe me anything. He didn't need to tell me he loved me back, because he showed it in his actions. Everything was fine.

Verbal validation was overrated, right?

"Better?" I asked with a tiny smile, putting my forehead to his once we finally pulled away from the kiss.

"Yes, " Barry answered, giving me a time-stopping smile as we continued walking.

 _Dear lord - I was enamored beyond hope..._

"Now - as _much_ as I appreciate your passion for the toxicity levels within an artifical oceanic environment...," I teased, gently leading him over to the wooden railing. He smiled, understanding, before he gave in and leaned in to surprise me with a kiss on the cheek.

I smiled, and we both held hands as we turned to look out to the dark, sparkling ocean beyond us, the full moon shining brightly above.

"The moon sure looks pretty tonight," I stated.

Barry smiled as he wrapped an arm around me to hug me lovingly from behind, burying his face in my hair.

"So do you," I heard him whisper.

"What?"

"I said that's true," he clarified, winding his arms tighter around me.

He sighed before dropping a kiss on my head.

"You know... They never _did_ teach us in school how the moon shines. The sun - it's pretty obvious. The sun emits light. But the moon is just a rock in the sky..."

"They never taught you that in school?" I asked in disbelief, twisting in his arms so I was facing him, using my hands to describe my words, "Well... It's really simple, actually. The moon itself is incapable of shining. It's literally just a giant rock, weighed in by Earth's gravity. It shines because it merely reflects portions of sunlight off of it, the same way other planets appear to be bright. They literally just send back the sunlight that hits them, the same way mirrors do-"

Barry nodded as he narrowed his eyes and smiled. I didn't register how annoying my _own_ nerdy rants were.

"And there she goes again," he murmured, before he delicately tipped my chin up to silence me with a zealous kiss, enveloping me in his lean, muscular arms. He kissed me achingly slowly, probing carefully into my mouth, before we were both interrupted by the sound of a phone going off.

Cursing softly under his breath, Barry pulled his phone out.

It was Cisco.

"Dude, I'm kind of in the middle of something here," he chided, his tone somewhat irritated as he held me close.

 _(This is important though,)_ I could hear Cisco reply, _(Dr. Wells has been attacked in his home. You and Artemis need to get over here, to his place. Now. Don't come in the suit.)_

Frowning, Barry hung up.

"Dr. Wells has been attacked?" I murmured in disbelief, worry settling through me. Barry nodded and I let him pick me up, wrapping my arms around his shoulders as he broke into his superspeed.

After the sensation of wind ripping through us passed and the city froze back into place, Barry set me down, and we found ourselves outside Dr. Wells's home - only each bit of glass has been shattered.

The windows, the roof, the glass tables have all been diminished into diamond-like pieces, carpeting the ground.

Inside, a circle of cops stood by Dr. Wells, along with Caitlin and Cisco.

"Allen!" Lieutenant Briggs called out, acknowledging us, "You're just in time. We need CSI."

Barry nodded, and despite not having his kit on him, entered Dr. Wells's living room, getting down on one knee as he surveyed the bits of glass sparkling on the lavish Persian rug. I followed after his example, studying the way the glass had crashed onto the floor.

"How could something have destroyed all of this glass so quickly?" I asked, picking up a tiny piece, "And with such... disseminated power?"

"I agree," Barry murmured, "With this strong of an attack, you would _think_ Dr. Wells would be injured too, not that I'm complaining."

We both looked over at Wells, still surrounded by police officers. There was damage all over his home, but not a single scratch on him.

What motives would someone have to conduct such a strange attack?

A glass-hating metahuman, who courteously left crippled humans unharmed?

"The only known way to destroy nothing but glass in this manner is through sound waves," I realized, recalling a simple physics lesson regarding resonancy as I peered up at the destroyed ceiling panes that only confirmed my suspicion.

"Sound waves?" Barry asked, looking around at the mess.

Briggs and the other cops left Dr. Wells with Cisco and Caitlin.

"Yeah," I responded, pointing out how the glass had cleared completely out of its panels, "If you have the precise combination of frequency and wavelength, you can easily create the sound wave necessary to resonate the glass at such an intensity that it'll bust, without damaging anything else. I mean, that has to explain why Dr. Wells is perfectly fine, right? And judging by the size and pattern of the breakage, it seems improbable this could have been caused through physical impact."

"Who could have done that?" Barry murmured, "A metahuman?"

"Not a metahuman," Dr. Wells answered, wheeling himself behind us, sided with Cisco and Caitlin, all of them with scared, pale faces, "An enemy."

* * *

 **[Cisco]**

Great.

Just great.

Right when things were beginning to look up for us, Hartley Ass-away decided to debut his return.

And this couldn't be good, for any of us.

Any worry I had was temporarily eliminated at the happy sight of Artemis and Dr. Wells in the Cortex the next morning, the former smiling as she handed me a slurpee, while enjoying one of her own, the latter with worried wrinkles adorning his forehead.

"Morning!" She chirped, setting her drink down as she continued looking through her notes.

"Hey," I responded warmly.

Dr. Wells scowled.

"Cisco, could you please explain to Artemis that the Pied Piper is _not_ someone to be taken lightly?" he pleaded in seriousness, "She doesn't believe me when I say he'll stop at nothing until he gets what he wants, and until we know what that is, none of us is safe!"

"He came up with his own name, Artemis," I stated grimly, "Believe me. Only the incredibly crazy ones do that."

"Oh please," she muttered, not looking up, "We'll be fine. Dr. Wells, you have myself and the Team watching your back if he comes back."

"It's not myself I'm worried about," he answered grimly.

"He attacked you in your home, though, sir," I replied, unsure of what he was trying to say.

"Look, we can't-"

"Morning," Caitlin interrupted, arriving in the lab from the curved entrance hall, followed by Barry, who walked over and kissed Artemis on the side of her head.

"Hey," he greeted myself and Wells, before hooking an arm over Van Kleiss's shoulder, "What are you working on?"

"Nuclear frequency indexes," she answered casually, as she continued to study the content.

"Frequency models?" Dr. Wells asked eagerly, "To stop Hartley?"

"If needed, yeah, but this was just something I had been doing for fun," she remarked, as Barry stole a sip of her drink.

"You've been studying nuclear frequencies?" Caitlin inquired incredulously, "For _fun_?"

"Hey - the things you could do with nuclear frequencies are awesome," the other woman chirped.

"Yeah," I affirmed, smiling at her, "Remember how we built the Shocker?"

"Oh man - the Shocker was sick," Barry agreed.

"I concur," Caitlin answered.

Artemis smiled, an evil glint shining in her eyes behind her glasses, and Dr. Wells narrowed his eyes at her.

"You've got something you'd like to show us," he concluded, "I can tell by the way you're smiling."

"I'll see you all in the basement in five minutes, then," She intoned, heading towards her lab.

###

Artemis met us in the basement as promised, pushing a heavy duty cart, covered with a protective blanket.

"What have you got there?" Dr. Wells asked, as Artemis stood back up and blew a bit of curly dark hair out of her face before fixing her bun.

She gave us a wily smile, and pulled the blanket off of the cart.

"Nuclear weapons!" She exclaimed proudly, revealing several kinds of guns, dark metallic spherical things, and sword handles... but without the swords?

"What?!" Caitlin gasped, stepping back in fear. Barry wore a look of astonishment on his face.

Dr. Wells lurched forward in his chair in surprise, eyes widened.

"Nuclear - _nuclear_ \- You - you realize this is illegal, right?" He stammered in fear, "You can't just go around cooking up WMD's in your lab! We're already classified as a Class 4 hazardous location, and I do _not_ want the FBI knocking on our door. Van Kleiss, this is wrong."

 _Nuclear weapons? Yes, very wrong_ , I thought.

 _Illegal and uncharted prison in our own lab? Nope, not illegal at all._

Artemis put her finger to her lips, as she thought something.

"You're right," she answered with a sly grin, "You don't want the FBI knocking on your door. It's _much_ cooler when they break in on their own."

"Van Kleiss!" Dr. Wells chastised.

"Relax, Wells," she assured, crossing her arms as she leaned against the cart, "I was joking. About the nuclear weapons, not the FBI, but that's beside the point. These aren't nuclear in the way the media knows nuclear. They're nuclear as in they're powered by hyper electrons."

"You built weapons with hyper electrons?" Barry asked.

"Yup!" Artemis replied proudly.

"Awesome..." I murmured, "Show us what you've got."

"Okay, but," Artemis began, eyeing us all suspiciously, "The _last_ time I gave an enthusiastic demonstration, _one_ of you decided to confess an overwhelmingly huge secret, and I passed out. I'm operating weapons that can kill, so if anyone has anything drastic to tell me, do so now, before one of you gets hurt."

Barry rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish smile.

"Trust me - nobody else here is secretly a speedster or metahuman, Artemis," Dr. Wells assured with a fatherly smile, "Please continue."

She smiled at him, and picked up the first weapon - a sleek, black carbine-style gun. She cocked it, letting it make a crisp clicking sound, before she aimed it at the back wall of the basement.

"This one was the first one I built," she explained, "It fires a simple shot of altered hyper electrons. If shot at a metahuman, it will temporarily debilitate them. If shot at a human, it will burn through them, destroying every cell in their body in search of the metahuman gene. In other words, fatal. May I?"

"Fire away," Dr. Wells permitted.

"Everyone, step back?" Artemis requested. We did so, and watched as a loud, but controlled, blast of white energy fired from the muzzle of the gun, in similar fashion to that of a flamethrower, reaching all the way to the back wall, before it stopped as she released the trigger.

"One shot of this this guy, and the metahuman's genome is completely shredded. Meaning, unfortunately, this weapon could be lethal to humans as well, depending on where it hits in the body."

Barry made a nervous mewling sound in his throat and folded his arms.

"Now, this one," she called, switching the first gun out for an intricate-looking copy of an ARX-160, "Has a slightly more specialized function. It'll change whatever material it hits into another material. So far, I've programmed the hyper electrons to transmutate into water and steel, but I can easily create more states later on. Watch this-"

She pointed the gun at one of the two haystack dummies and fired a similar pummel of energy at it, until she stopped.

The dummy was silver now, and fell off of the stand with a loud _CLANG_ , evidencing that it was now made of steel. Behind it, the metal stand had ripped into two pieces, both crooked.

"And the other-"

After a similar attack on the second dummy, all that remained was a blob of water which immediately splashed onto the ground, nothing left on the stands.

"You plan on stopping the man in yellow by turning him into water?" Dr. Wells asked with a smallfrown.

"I actually plan on ripping his head off with my bare hands, sir," she responded casually, as she showcased another weapon - a smaller version of the original Shocker, which would temporarily paralyze metahumans, as well as give them short-term blindness.

"That's not so bad," Caitlin commented.

"Where on earth did you get the idea to build weapons in your free time?" Dr. Wells inquired, although it was unsure if he was unimpressed or simply baffled.

"Um. Modern Warfare. Halo," Artemis attempted, "Assassin's Creed. Resident Evil."

"She still can't beat me at Madden NFL, though" Barry stated with a shrug, before fist-bumping his girlfriend.

"What do these do?" I asked, picking up one of the black metallic ball-like devices, turning it around in my hands. I soon heard a low _click_ , and a slow piercing sound which steadily intensified.

"CISCO - THAT'S A _BOMB!_ " Artemis shouted, taking it from my hand and throwing it baseball-style into the back of the basement, before she pulled Barry and I down by our shoulders, Caitlin intuitively turning Dr. Wells's wheelchair around.

We heard an eruption behind us, and Artemis turned around to assess the damage. We now watched the last of the nuclear flashes disappear, the explosion evident by the huge burn marks on the floor, ceiling and two walls, no sign of the metal dummy or either of the two stands.

She glared at me.

"How was I supposed to know?!" I protested.

"You _ask_ before touching!"

"You blew up my basement!" Dr. Wells growled.

"I'm officially afraid of you," Barry mumbled.

"I second that," Caitlin added.

"Van Kleiss - you _bombed. My. Basement_!"

She gave us a whole smile and shrugged.

"I'll fix it."

"You'll fix the architectural support system of a giant room five stories underground?"

"You say that like you doubt it," Artemis muttered, dusting the pleats of her skirt.

"What do those do?" Caitlin asked, pointing to the empty sword handles/metal handles/whatever they were.

"Now, these, my young padawans..." she declared, grinning as she threw two at us, "A _different_ kind of weapon. I couldn't resist building these, after I learned how to harness the hyper electron's power."

I caught one, and Barry did the other, before we both widened our eyes.

This wasn't a simple handle.

It was a _device._

One I had seen so often in movies, and always wished for my entire life...

One I had dreamed of wielding, ever since I first saw the Star Wars movies as a child...

There was _no_ way I was holding one in my hand.

A elegantly carved metal hilt, mine engraved differently from Barry's, with familiar buttons and rings around it.

My heart was about to sing.

"You did _not_ ," Barry gasped, recognizing what he was holding.

Artemis stepped forward with an easy smile, took mine from me, activated it until a huge bright green laser blade was emitted, with an all-too-familiar humming sound.

"OH MY _GOD_!" I yelled, before my excitement turned into childish squeals, "You _built_ a light saber! You built a light saber! Oh my god oh my god _ohmygod!_ "

"An electron saber, since 'light' saber has been officially copyrighted by LucasFilms, but yeah," Artemis answered, lighting up the one in Barry's hand, his glowing bright red.

"Woah," Barry mumbled, his eyes ready to pop out of their sockets out of astonishment, "This is _amazing_!"

"Allen," I called excitedly, facing an astounded Barry with my electron saber pointed, ready for battle, "One on one?"

"Oh, yes!" Barry replied, and I hurried to pull out my phone, where I launched the Star Wars theme and we both smiled like toddlers, holding up our sabers at each other.

"Vader..."

"Obi-Wan," Barry muttered.

"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could ever imagine," I replied in an accent, doing my best impersonation of Alec Guinness, as Dr. Wells groaned and covered his face. Caitlin rolled her eyes.

We grinned smugly at each other and both swung our sabers, before Artemis suddenly came running in between, with a small shriek. She ducked, barely avoiding my saber.

We pulled up, and saw that I had accidentally singed off the upper half of her bun.

Breathing heavily, she rose, gawked at the fallen pieces of hair now on the ground, before she turned off both of our sabers and took them from our hands.

"I forgot to tell you that they'll _actually_ kill you," she described, as she pulled out a switchblade - a switchblade?! - cracked open the battery compartment, used said switchblade as a screwdriver to tweak something inside, before she screwed the compartments shut and handed them back to us.

"Here. They should be fine now," she assured quickly, frowning, "If I had _known_ you two would act like kids around them, I'd have manipulated the nuclear frequency to safe levels long before."

"Umm... Sorry for the haircut," I answered meekly, watching as she untied her hair, ran her hand through it to shake out any more loose pieces.

"It's fine," she replied with a nervous laugh as she tried to smooth out the damage, "You would've given me a second degree burn had you touched skin. How bad is it?"

Barry and I looked at each other in guilt before we turned back to Artemis.

She would _not_ be happy when she looked in a mirror.

I had better hope she wouldn't be near any of her weapons, or me, when she saw it.

"Umm... We can barely tell the difference."

"Yeah," Barry lied, "It looks exactly the same."

Caitlin raised an eyebrow in disgust at us.

"Oh, well, _good_ ," Artemis replied, as she went back to the cart and dealt with the weapons, leaving her unseemly choppy black hair untied.

"Artemis?" Dr. Wells called out.

"Mmm?"

"First things first, you're going to need to visit a barber. Secondly, switchblades are not an acceptable substitute for screwdrivers, and thirdly, to reiterate my earlier question, do you _plan_ on stopping metahumans by turning them into water? Or by building your own army of Stormtroopers? Because I haven't freed you from my supervision so you could play with video game-inspired weaponry."

Artemis sighed, before scowling at Wells.

"I'm going to ignore that comment you made about the switchblade. And for the record, this was just a side project, sir. Something I've been tinkering with in my spare time. I assure you you'll get what you want in a matter of time."

"And if the man in the yellow suit strikes before then?" Dr. Wells challenged, leaning forward with an upset glint in his eyes, "What if he attacks you again?"

"Then he should know who he's after," Artemis replied, picking up one of the big metal guns, cocking it, and holding it against her shoulder, raising an eyebrow at Wells in response.

"Can I keep the saber, Artemis?" I interjected excitedly.

"Can I keep mine as well?" Barry repeated.

"Can I keep one of the grenades too?" I added, "In case of emergencies?"

"We've had enough nuclear explosions for one morning," Dr. Wells muttered.

"Yeah," Caitlin added, "Artemis, let's-"

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the sound of the Cortex alarms going off upstairs, and Barry rushed out of the basement, and we went up as fast as we could.

When we reached the Cortex, Artemis ran over and took the center seat at the curved desk, and quickly turned on the comms and the satellite readings, going into Overprotective Girlfriend Mode.

"Metahuman in Downtown. Clearview Way," she fed into the systems, "He's attacking Rathaway Industries."

"Hartley," Caitlin muttered, as I tried to pick up feeds from traffic cams.

"Barry, where are you?" she called out.

 _(I see him,)_ Barry responded, _(He's - he's using some kind of gauntlets to emit sound waves.)_

" _Get_. Him." Dr. Wells ordered, as the four of us helped guide Barry through Hartley's attack. Several pulsating waves were heard, followed by the sound of glass breaking.

 _(It's over, Rathaway,)_ Barry commanded calmly, no doubt having caught Rathaway by now.

 _(You know my name,)_ Hartley responded coolly, _(I know some names too. Caitlin Snow. Cisco Ramon. Harrison Wells. I can hear the radio waves echoing from your suit. About 1900 MegaHertz? Is that them on the other end?)_

My insides quivered...

He could hear the radio waves?

He knew which frequency I used in our commlink systems?

 _(Are they listening? Are they gonna hear you die?)_

 _(No,)_ Barry answered confidently, _(They're gonna hear you get your ass kicked.)_

I smiled, and Artemis turned and gave me a fist bump in agreement with Barry, before we heard Barry hit something through the comms, followed by that pulsating shrill and more broken glass.

"He's okay," Caitlin assured, and we watched as a red dot on the map circled around Rathaway, surveillance from a traffic cam showing Barry with the surrounding police, his attention still focused on the metahuman moron. Barry zoomed behind each car, throwing police batons at Hartley to distract him, before jolting over and ripping his gloves off, and holding him by the front of his shirt.

 _(Looks like you're not as smart as everyone says.)_

 _(Smart enough to have figured out who Harrison Wells really is... You see, I know his secret.)_

A chill settled through the air as we all turned and faced Dr. Wells, who now wore a blank expression.

"Barry, bring him in," he advised, and in a minute or so, Barry arrived back in the Cortex, pushing Hartley along by the back of his neck, his hands in cuffs.

"Being scooped up by a man clad in head to toe leather is a long time fantasy of mine, so thanks," Hartley blessed, before Barry pushed him forward, irritated by the comment.

"Excuse _you_ ," Artemis muttered, offended, taking in the sight of the man who had just flirted with her boyfriend - a short, shadowy figure with pale skin, rumpled black hair, black coat, pants and combat boots, that ugly smirk on his square jaw.

Hartley looked like Harry Potter, if Harry Potter decided to go for a Gothic homeless guy kind of look.

"Well, then, if it isn't my beloved old colleagues," Hartley recognized, giving us all a fake smile as he eyed Artemis at the table and the Flash, standing behind him, "And we have some new faces here as well."

Artemis and Barry both scowled.

"Wells, you finally hired yourself a receptionist?" Hartley called out, gesturing with a chin to Artemis, "Nice glasses, kid."

Artemis and I winced unanimously as his comment settled in.

Her and Hartley were wearing identical tortoiseshell glasses, with big, round lenses...

No. They were just glasses. Nothing special. Odd coincidence. Artemis made me a light saber. She wasn't like him.

Artemis murmured a curse in Greek, narrowing her eyes as she walked up to this new character to get a better look.

It was then that I wished I could un-see what I just saw, and no doubt, Caitlin and Wells were probably thinking similar thoughts.

Artemis.

Hartley.

Identical glasses.

Similar messy, dark hair (okay - her hair was _my_ fault but still).

The same undeniable air of confidence, the demanding regal authority.

Similar exact height.

Reputable family backgrounds.

Most notably, the same dissatisfied glower with which they studied each other, glaring daggers at each other.

 _They could have been siblings._

I immediately got the feel that they would either immediately hate each other, or befriend each other and become a force to be reckoned with...

"Tell me - Do I look like a receptionist to you?" She challenged, crossing her arms.

"Denim shirt, vintage glasses, black pleated skirt - to be honest, you actually look like a 12 year old who decided to steal her mother's clothes."

So they chose the "immediately hate each other" route.

Wise choice.

"Don't tell me you're judging me based off of my outfits," Artemis taunted with a sly smile, leaning back against the table, "I'm not the one running around the city in a dirty black cloak calling myself the Pied Piper."

Hartley glared at her, sizing her up, as if he was trying to find her weak points.

"Who exactly _are_ you?" Hartley scorned, suddenly growing hateful towards Van Kleiss.

"Do not tell him a _word_ of you are," Dr. Wells warned quickly, looking at Artemis with a quiet desperation in his eyes.

Wells was right - the more Hartley knew about you, the more he'd figure out how to destroy you.

It's best Artemis kept quiet about herself. He'd definitely lose his cool once he knew who he was _really_ talking to.

Hartley studied t Wells, delighted.

"Oh, so Wells is looking after you," he mused, as he continued to check her out, "Can't imagine what good a woman would do him, seeing his condition..."

"Watch it, Hartley," Caitlin asserted firmly, "She's an engineer and a physicist here. And a pretty dangerous one, too, at that."

Artemis threw Caitlin a small, grateful smile for the compliment.

"A physicist _and_ an engineer? One woman satisfying two positions, Wells?" Hartley inquired, giving Wells a dark grin as he arched an eyebrow up, "I'd say that's a new low for you, but seeing ... the shape you're in... and how little time you have these days, I suppose that's how you prefer your women nowadays."

"Hartley!" Dr. Wells shouted, enraged.

"That's it," Barry exhorted angrily, pushing him forward, "Into the Pipeline with you."

"No, no," Artemis cajoled, getting up and waving a hand, assuring Wells and Barry that it was okay, surprising us all, "It's fine. It's not a problem, guys."

We watched Hartley's reaction as Artemis casually pulled out the switchblade from earlier. His eyes widened as she nonchalantly unsheathed it, and used it to clean out her nails.

"So, go on. You were actually entertaining me by making a fool of yourself." She crooned, brown eyes glaring into his as she spoke, "Who asked you to stop talking?"

He couldn't look away from the sharp, shining blade in her hands, as she absentmindedly - and precisely - flicked it in and out of each fingernail without looking, never missing her mark.

"Does... does your dad know you took his pocketknife, sweetheart?"

"Oh, my dad was murdered," Artemis announced easily, giving Hartley a wicked smirk as she wiped at the cold steel with her thumb, "Stabbed. Right through his heart. Funny thing is, they still haven't found the suspect. You keep talking, something tells me you'll meet a similar fate."

Hartley quivered, before he braced himself again before her, Barry snickering silently behind him.

"A bit of a wily one, aren't you?" He concluded with a fake smile, "No worries. You, and your little Red Racer friend behind me... You're my replacements. The _new_ proteges. That's more than enough of what I need to know about you. Enjoy your happiness. Both of you. It won't be long before Wells disposes of you both, like he did to me."

"Still as stuck up as ever," I muttered, "You still think of yourself as the most important one here, that this Lab _revolved_ around _you_. That's why nobody liked you, and why you got fired. You couldn't swallow your own ego long enough to give anyone else a chance."

"Wouldn't _you_ like to know how much I could swallow, Cisco," Hartley countered with an unsettling wink, and a flash of silver glinted in the light.

Artemis had the knife at his throat, Barry smiling at her as he held Hartley up for her.

"Do _not_ talk to him like that," she seethed, before she put on a cruel smile, "Unless you want him to see you swallow this _knife_."

"Easy, sweetheart," Hartley whimpered, before he put his own cunning smile back on, "Put the knife away. You know you won't actually-"

"Oh, he thinks I'm _bluffing_ ," she laughed, pressing the point of the switchblade deeper into his skin, Hartley making mewling sounds, "He clearly hasn't seen my criminal records."

"God, Wells," he declared softly, gulping, taken aback, "Where'd you find this bitch?"

 _From the pits of your darkest nightmares_ would be a good guess, Rathaway.

"Hartley, watch your tongue. The woman you just referred to so patronizingly is none other than one of the smartest people I have ever met, and have had the pleasure to work with," Wells scolded, looking to Artemis with pride, "Having her at this lab has been a blessing in ways it never was with you. You had better show some respect."

Hartley jeered, and gave Artemis a malevolent grin.

"Oh, so she _is_ your new favorite? This is the best you could do? A woman with a sad sense of fashion, tiny boobs, bad hair and an even worse attitude?"

"Hartley!-" Caitlin and I shouted.

"Woah there. Don't talk about yourself like that, Rathaway," Artemis chastised, her clear, even voice overtaking all of ours, "Self-deprecation is tied directly to low esteem. Come on, Flash. Let's get rid of this guy before I lose my patience and we find ourselves with a dead billionaire."

Barry smirked at her as he and Artemis both grabbed Hartley by each of his arms, before heading down to the Pipeline.

Hartley didn't put up a fight, and snickered at his two imprisoners.

"Wells's new puppets," he concluded, moving a bit closer to the Flash to taunt him, "Must be nice, being placed on pedestals. Given the special, favorite-child treatment. The undivided attention, the care, the unhindered support. But it'll only do you away in the end. After all, the higher you go up, the faster you'll fall down."

"No wonder you were fired. You must've been a horrible physicist," Barry muttered.

"The rate at which you fall doesn't change, stupid," Artemis clarified, "The acceleration of gravity is a universal constant."

"Yeah," Barry agreed, "It's the _impact_ that becomes deadly. Not the fall itself. Unless we're taking air resistance and friction into consideration. But she's right. The speed of your fall never changes."

Artemis broke into a cute smile at Barry's words.

Hartley noticed the subtle, but obvious comfort between the two of them.

"Well, aren't the two of you pleasantly agreeable?" Hartley rhapsodized, looking back and forth between the Flash and his accomplice, "Wells's little tools for revenge are somehow involved beyond mere lab work, I'm guessing. Sweetheart, what did you say your name was again?"

"A respectable name such as hers does not belong on your dirty tongue," Caitlin responded sternly.

"Ohoho," Hartley returned, "So everyone loves her. When are you going to trash her, Wells?"

"Stop blaming him for your own mistakes," I disdained, as Artemis shoved him hard in punishment for his remark, "And _nobody_ needs revenge against you. You'll screw yourself on your own, like you always do."

We had arrived at the Pipeline, and Caitlin stepped forward to type in the entrance sequence, while Barry unlocked Hartley's handcuffs. I stood back with Dr. Wells.

" _Caitlin_ ," Hartley mused, glinting a harsh smile at our quiet friend, "I never _did_ get that wedding invite, you know."

"Alright - you know what?" I seethed at him, stepping up to him and instinctively pulling out my... electron saber?

He looked at me with fear, before the green energy blade shot out with a surprising hum.

He laughed.

"A _light_ saber, Cisco?" Hartley jeered, "My, my, how _disappointing_. We used to be a _prestigious_ center for scientific research. Now, we have a woman replacing myself and Ronnie - whom _none_ of you will see again, by the way - a track runner on steroids doing Wells's dirty work, and to top it all off, Cisco's threatening me with an actual light saber. The lab has taken _quite_ the hit since the explosion, hasn't it?"

"I'd be afraid of him, if I were you," Artemis comforted, putting her elbow on my shoulder, "That saber can actually dice you into little Hartley cubes."

"How would you know?"

"Because I built it."

Hartley guffawed sarcastically again, wiping away a tear from his his ugly eyes behind his glasses. Barry aggressively pushed him into the chamber. Caitlin activated the locking mechanism in the palladium doors, shutting Hartley behind a clear, inescapable wall.

"Oh, Wells, you called her a step _up_ from me?" he snarked from behind the glass, "She builds children's toys! You - you said she was one of the _smartest_ people you've ever met?! Oh wow, wouldn't _Ronnie_ love to see this - him and myself both being replaced by a 12 year old who still plays with toys. Too bad he can't really be here. Too bad none of you can help with that."

"Shut the hell up!" Barry shouted, looking to Caitlin with worry.

"If you feel the need to leave him with an electron bomb in his chamber," Dr. Wells began, facing Artemis once more before he turned away to leave with Caitlin, Barry zooming out, "I wouldn't be against it."

"Oh, don't bother with your silly toys, Princess _Peach_ ," Hartley replied, from his chamber, now alone with myself and Artemis, "You'll want me alive. Trust me."

"Highly doubt it," Artemis intoned with a fed-up sigh.

"Oh, don't be so inflexible, sweetheart. Just watch. _You'll_ be the ones letting me out," Hartley explained, gesturing a chin towards me, "You know I was there that night, Cisco. What you don't know is that a certain Martin Stein was there as well. I might have a bit of information useful to you regarding what happened to Ronnie."

"I don't believe you," I muttered, before Artemis rolled her eyes, facing me one last time.

"Come on, Cisco. His stupid little face is wearing down on my patience."

"You're hilarious," Hartley replied, now focusing on me, "You know I've got what you want. And then some."

"You are not getting out of this cell," I answered dourly, before I shut his chamber behind the electric field panel, and left with Artemis.

She turned around, and headed back to "deal with some unfinished business."

###

"Ms. Van Kleiss, what happened to Hartley?" Wells asked Artemis with concern once she returned as he eyed the surveillance cams in the Pipeline.

"I don't know. He's stupid," she responded, heading into Caitlin's lab to wash her hands, the knuckles of one fist marred with blood that wasn't hers.

Caitlin too raised an eyebrow at her before going to her lab.

"Funny?" Wells mused with a kind smile as he turned around in his wheelchair to watch her, "I wasn't aware that stupidity caused people to spontaneously start bleeding from the mouth?"

"It must be a new phenomenon," she muttered with a wink, joining us in the Cortex again.

Artemis and I tinkered around with Hartley's nifty little sound wave-emitting gloves, before we figured out how to successfully disable them.

"I'll be going up, now, sir," she announced, turning to leave to the hallway.

"Excellent. Will you be building laser cannons now?" Dr. Wells asked, "Or bowcasters? Maybe an army of storm troopers is in order."

"Great idea, sir!" Artemis remarked just as sardonically, glaring at Wells, annoyed at him, "Maybe when I'm done building that army, I can set it after you to teach you a lesson about patience."

Dr. Wells grimaced.

"I have quite a bit of faith in you, Van Kleiss," he answered, scowling at her, "And I also have respect. Don't try anything that'll change either of those aspects."

"I won't, if you do the same," she responded in a manner that sent chills down my back, and reminded me of Hartley again.

Maybe the glasses and the famous last names weren't the only things these two had in common...

Snap out of it, I scolded myself.

Artemis's glare melting into a worried expression as she glanced from Wells to Caitlin, working quietly in her labs. Instead of taking the hallway leading upstairs, she quietly slipped into the medical wing and closed the door behind her.

I frowned as I watched Artemis gently pull Caitlin from her work, and rest her hand on Caitlin's arm, offering her words of comfort.

Ronnie...

 _You know I was there that night._

 _I might have a bit of information useful to you regarding what happened._

Yeah, right, Rathaway.

But _if_ Hartley knew anything...

"Caitlin, you know I'm not Ronnie's replacement," I could hear Artemis murmur, "You know we'll find him."

Those last five words...

They had been said too often here, by myself, by Barry, by Wells, and by Artemis too, once we told her of Ronnie's reappearances since the explosion.

To be honest, the more often we saw Ronnie, the less hopeful we became about being able to save him.

He just... _wasn't_ there anymore.

"You have me now. I can help."

A light bulb went off in my brain.

 _You have me now. I can help._

Caitlin nodded and Artemis gave her a warm smile, before she left Caitlin, and went to her own lab.

I suddenly remembered the project Artemis was working on...

She had more answers than she knew.

###

"Artemis?" I called out, knocking on the door to her lab. I heard a loud whirring sound quiet down.

She opened the door, but just barely. Inside, I could see a mess of papers across the desks put together, and several huge white buckets labeled with CAUTION: TOXIC HAZARD.

I then saw she was wearing a bright yellow HazMat suit, peering at me from behind the clear screen protecting her face.

"Sup?" She asked kindly.

"We're - we're going to need to let Hartley out."

* * *

 **[Artemis]**

Never did I think I would willingly agree to letting that asshat out of his prison chamber.

Cisco, however, pressed that Hartley had some rather necessary information for us regarding Ronnie, and seeing the kind of condition he put Caitlin in, I saw fit to agree and go along with it.

Plus, the little bastard seemed to be kind of afraid of me, and I, in turn, had plenty of surprises for him.

I waited outside the side entrance of the Lab with my arms crossed, and watched as Cisco pushed a stubborn, snarky, but handcuffed Rathaway outside.

"Sup, sweetheart," I intoned sarcastically.

Rathaway turned around and widened his eyes at me in fear. I slipped the steel handle of a gun out of my jacket pocket to show him, "I'm guessing you're going to want to use this opportunity to try and trick us, maybe run off and escape. I'm guessing I'm going to have a little target practice, if that happens. And trust me. I don't miss."

Cisco flashed me a quick smile that disappeared when Hartley faced him again.

"You said you were going to show me what happened to Ronnie," Cisco ordered, "Ronnie died _inside_ the building. What are we doing out here?"

Hartley managed a crooked smile as I joined the two of them.

"What do you see?"

Cisco and I looked around. I scowled. There was nothing. This was your everyday STAR Labs.

"I don't know," Cisco retorted, walking down the steps, "Buildings. Walls. _Dirt?"_

"Lots of dirt," I added, glowering at Rathaway.

He scoffed at me and followed after Cisco.

"Wells would be so disappointed in your observational skills," he answered calmly, "Look again."

Cisco and I then noticed a shadow of a man frozen into the side of the building. Hartley sneered at us as we stepped up to it.

"What is this?" I murmured, rubbing a finger at it. Cisco did the same.

"Bakudan no kage," Hartley answered.

Cisco and I both turned to each other with looks of confusion, before we turned and gave the same look to Hartley.

"It's Japanese," he explained, as if we should have known.

"How can you speak six languages and sound like a _dick_ in every one of them?" Cisco amazed sarcastically.

"It means 'bomb shadow'," he described coolly, "They found these all over Hiroshima after the first atomic bomb was dropped. _This_ shadow belonged to Martin Stein."

"How do you know this?" I asked, though I had no idea who Stein was.

"Accelerator explosion did this to him?" Cisco gawked softly, pointing at the shadow again.

"You really don't see it, do you?" Hartley questioned, grinning, "You're gonna kick yourself when you figure it out."

"You'll stop playing games if you know what's best for you," I seethed, sudden hatred settling through me, "Tell us. Now."

He gave me a quiet, dark grin.

"Oh man," Cisco muttered, "You were full of it then. You're full of it now. This is just another one of your lame-ass tricks. Come on, we're going back into the Pipeline."

Cisco and I grabbed Hartley by both arms, before Hartley shot an elbow right into Cisco's face, quickly twisting to deliver a hard knee into my stomach before I could process what he was doing.

He turned to strike Cisco again, before Cisco recomposed himself and struck him in the face first, myself quickly kicking Hartley in the back, right into Cisco's arms, before Cisco pushed Hartley face-first into the concrete wall. Hartley pushed Cisco away, the latter falling on his back. I immediately reintroduced his face to my fist, surprising him, before I pinned him by the neck to the wall again, other hand pulling out my gun, cocking it with my teeth and pointing it right in front of his eyes, forcing him to stay still.

Little did he know my gun... wasn't actually a gun.

Cisco, following the plan we had made, pulled out a frequency-inducing device that we had quickly built together before letting Hartley out, and activated it, sending out a shrill, piercing screech into the air. Hartley doubled forward, crying out in pain.

I smiled and released my hand from his neck.

Hartley was helpless against us with that sound going.

"You're not the only one who understands vibrations, _Hartley_ ," Cisco exclaimed coldly, "Those cochlear devices you're wearing? I made a few adjustments."

"Stop! Stop, please!" Hartley pleaded, clutching his ears in pain, "Make it stop! Please! I'll show you!"

"You'll tell us where Ronnie is," I snapped, "And you definitely won't try that again, or he _won't_ make it stop."

"Okay! Okay! Please!" Hartley whimpered, crying out, "Stop the sound! Stop the sound! I'll get you what you both want! I promise!"

Cisco pressed the frequency inducer, turning off the sound, and I grabbed Hartley by the arm again. He spat blood onto the ground, and wiped at his mouth with his sleeve, hyperventilating.

"I have to say - I'm impressed," he managed, huffing to catch his breath, "Didn't think you had it in you. Your unnamed bitch of a friend here, yeah, but you, Cisco? Never."

Cisco and I frowned as Hartley stood up straight, held his cuffed hands out to us.

"You'll have to take these off of me if you want the truth," he stated.

"And why's that?" Cisco asked.

"It'll look a little conspicuous where we're going next," Hartley answered, his ugly grin returning to his jaw. Cisco gave a single, solemn nod and stepped up, before I grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

"Nice try," I commanded, "I don't care where we have to take you. The cuffs stay _on_."

###

"So, where did you say we were going again?" I asked from the driver's seat, Cisco and Hartley being seated beside each other in the backseat of my car.

"CCPD, sweetheart," Hartley answered with a knowing grin.

"Why? You'd rather sit in jail than a state-of-the-art accelerator prison?" I questioned, driving. Cisco threw me a quick smile in the rearview, before he flipped his silky hair and looked out the window, Hartley watching the action with wistful eyes.

 _Hartley watching with wistful eyes?!_

Indeed, there was a lingering softness in the way Hartley was studying Cisco, before he turned to me.

Something clicked in my mind about that look. I'd seen that look in Eddie, when he was with Iris. Barry, when he was with me. Countless other boys, when they were in the presence of my friends...

Wait - wasn't Hartley gay?

"CCPD confiscated everything from STAR Labs after the accelerator exploded," he jeered at me, "Video. Audio. Traffic cam footage?"

"So?" Cisco asked, facing Hartley with a look of pure irritation.

Hartley returned with that gentle, almost _loving_ look again, before it immediately hardened into his signature cruel one.

"So there's something in the footage you'll need to see," he exhorted, as if it should have been obvious. Cisco gave Hartley a dirty look before turning his attention to the window again.

"So, sweetheart," Hartley asked, eyeing me in the rearview, "Tell me about yourself. Who are you? Where are you from? How did Wells find you?"

"I don't have to tell you anything," I muttered as I drove through Downtown.

"But I want to know _all_ about you," Hartley murmured, leaning back in his seat.

 _Were my eyes deceiving me, or did he lean slightly towards Cisco?_

"I want to know how you proved yourself to be better than me. How you won Wells over. How you became romantically involved with the Flash."

The hairs stood up on my arms.

I could care less if he knew about me, but if he was able to piece the Flash's identity because of his connection to me, and endangered Barry, I'd _never_ be able to live with myself.

"What makes you think I'm romantically involved with the Flash?" I snapped, "Because I'm _not_."

"Oh, I'm no fool," Hartley responded with a coy grin, "I saw your little interactions this morning. You both clearly know each other well. The way you pretty much completed each other's actions... The way he smiled at you, and how you looked at him with a proud admiration. How you both got along well...The small touches, the loving gaze. It's pretty obvious."

"The smile? The look of proud admiration? The loving gaze?" I retorted, cracking a wily grin, "You mean, like, the one you keep giving _Cisco_?"

Hartley and Cisco both widened their eyes and faced each other with looks of bewilderment, the former turning tomato red.

"Knew it," I muttered, as Cisco broke into a knowing smile and Hartley tried to defend himself.

"I - that is not true!" He protested bitterly, "I would _never_ fall for someone with such a pathetic taste in clothing, or such childish diction. Ramon is - is ... He's - he's a worthless peasant!"

"Pretty cute for a worthless peasant," I remarked, stifling a smile and raising an eyebrow as Hartley continued to embarrass himself to Cisco's amusement.

"I do _not_ like him!" He denied furiously, scooting away from Cisco.

"Awww... This explains why you're such an ass to me!" Cisco joked, "You're hiding a crush! That's okay, Hartley. I like you too."

"R-really?"

" _Hell_ no."

Hartley cowered, and looked as if he was about to cry.

I laughed out loud as I parked the car by the CCPD, and sent Barry a quick text describing our situation - minus Hartley's feelings, and Cisco and I hauled Hartley inside, Rathaway tensing at Cisco's touch now.

Once inside, Hartley tried to push out of our grips and began crying out.

"Help! Help me!" he yelled, "I'm being kidnapped against my will!"

Luckily, most of the hall was empty, and there are a few people inside the interior building, but behind closed doors. I quickly put my hand over Rathaway's mouth, before I heard the sound of tentative footsteps from behind, approaching us.

 _Dammit! Someone found us!_

 _We were forcing a criminal in cuffs into the police station! What would we say?!_

 _What if he started yelling that we knew the Flash, or something?!_

"What's going on here?" Barry asked sternly, putting on a black police jacket and a pair of aviator sunglasses as Cisco and I turned at the sound of his voice. I could see _Det. Joseph West_ engraved on the bronze metal label along the jacket's chest pocket.

Barry grabbed a cup of coffee off of Lake's desk to complete the police look, and scowled at us.

"Detective Joseph West," Barry declared sternly, "Care to explain what you're doing here?"

 _You dolt_ , I thought, _this wasn't part of the plan! Why would you risk yourself in front of Hartley like this?! Get OUT of here!_

"Detective," Cisco responded with a serious nod, reaching a hand out to shake Barry's, "My name is Cisco Ramon. I'm a deputy with Iron Heights. This is Hartley Rathaway - the criminal who attacked Rathaway Industries this morning. He has intel on the whereabouts of a dangerous missing metahuman. I'm on strict orders to obtain this information from him with the help of the police database."

Huh?

"I see," Barry answered, giving Cisco a firm handshake before putting his hands at his sides, scowling deeply at Hartley.

"Officer!" Hartley protested, "He's - he's lying! He's just a lowly mechanic working with STA-"

"And do you have any proof of your task?" Barry - Detective Wannabe West - questioned Deputy Ramon again.

"I do, sir," Cisco replied, pulling out his phone, typing something in before handing it to Barry.

I forced myself to keep a straight face, as Cisco handed Barry his phone, an electronic document titled _Operation 17_ open on the screen.

 _Operation 17_ was the title of Cisco's favorite NC-17 Star Wars fanfiction.

My insides hurt as I strained _very hard_ not to laugh, watching Barry read the contents on the document in complete seriousness, nodding as he gave the phone back to Cisco.

"Very well," he consented, allowing us access to his lab with a solemn nod.

"Detective - he's _lying_!" Hartley countered desperately, eyes wide open.

"Oh? All evidence suggests the opposite," Barry answered, before facing me, taking a rather long sip of Lake's coffee.

"Officer West, _please_ -"

"Sir, Rathaway here suffered severe head trauma while working at STAR Labs. It's a combination of Stress Cardiomyopathy - better known as Broken Heart Syndrome - as well as a clinical diagnosis of severe schizophrenia. Rathaway sees and hears things that aren't true," I explained seriously, moving my hands as I spoke to emphasize my words, "You have to believe us when we say we are telling you the truth. Because of his condition, it's best he stay handcuffed."

"Broken Heart Syndrome?" Barry asked, taking another sip of Lake's coffee.

"Yes, sir," I answered, "Rathaway here suffers from a surge of stress-related hormones affecting his body. He - he fell for a certain Hispanic mechanical engineer while working at STAR Labs, and has become very _bitter_ because the other scientist was far out of his league. He was too good for him, as it is better said. Rathaway never got over his crush, and his erratic behavior lost him his job at the facilities."

Barry did an excellent job of hiding any reaction to my words. I got the feeling he would crack up the second we were out of earshot.

"For the last time," Hartley begged a little too defensively, crying out like a child, "I do _not_ like Cisco!"

"And what gives you the ground to say such things, ma'am?" Barry questioned me, raising an eyebrow.

"Sadly, I am nothing more than a well-informed _receptionist_ , Detective," I answered sadly, giving a bewildered Hartley a small, sly smile before looking back at Barry with mock earnestness.

"She is _not_ a receptionist!" Hartley exclaimed, "She's a _physicist_! She was threatening me with a weapon earlier! I have proof! Search her!"

I lifted up my elbows, and hid my smile with an innocent face.

"You're welcome to pat me down, sir," I challenged coyly, hoping for Barry's sake that it didn't come off as flirtatious.

It probably came off as flirtatious.

Cursing under my breath, I hoped Hartley hadn't noticed.

Keeping a straight face, Barry quickly searched my outer garments with both hands, before he pulled out the "gun" I had been using earlier.

My black-hilted electron saber.

Barry raised an eyebrow at Hartley.

"Was this the weapon she had been using?" He asked Hartley solemnly, "This is a _toy."_

"No, it isn't!" Hartley whimpered, Cisco smiling as he held his arm, "She - she used it to threaten me. She said she built it herself-"

"At the Build Your Own Light Saber kiosk in DisneyWorld, Orlando," I interjected inadverdently, shrugging, "All true Jedis build their own sabers."

"It's a dangerous weapon, Detective!" Hartley whimpered, Cisco grinning like a fool.

"Oh, it is dangerous indeed," I chirped, "It did away with poor Vader's hand."

"Luke's hand too," Cisco added.

Hartley widened his eyes, and was finally at a loss for words.

"May we go now, sir?" I asked Barry.

He nodded, and I gave him a hint of a smile before I joined Cisco in hustling a flabbergasted Hartley Rathaway up the stairs to Barry's lab, Cisco and I cheering on the inside.

"Ma'am?" Officer Wannabe West called out from the main floor, "May I have a word with you regarding the possession of everyday objects and using them to threaten others?"

Once Cisco and Hartley had disappeared behind the doors of the lab, I raced back down the stairs into Barry's arms, intercepting him with a gracious kiss.

By keeping the other cops out of the way, he had let Cisco and I sneak past with a wanted criminal who had otherwise gone missing at the hands of the Flash.

"Barry!" Joe called out, opening the door to the main hall, forcing us to pull away, "Got any idea where my jacket went?"

###

"Alright. Stop the video there," Hartley suggested, Cisco and I reviewing the tapes from the night the accelerator exploded at the Lab. We obeyed and watched as a well-dressed, elderly man with black rimmed glasses walked through out halls of STAR Labs.

"Who is that?" I asked, not recognizing the figure.

"That would be Martin Stein. He was there at the Lab the night the accelerator went boom," Hartley muttered, still tied up in his cuffs, "He walked right past me. You see... Stein specialized in _transmutation_. Molecular transmography. Quantum splicing."

My ears perked up as Hartley spoke up, and Cisco looked right at me with worried eyes.

"It means taking two things and turning them into _one_ ," Hartley announced, rolling his eyes.

Unable to restrain myself, I turned around and knocked my fist into his face again, letting him stumble and fall backwards.

"Cut the attitude," I seethed, as Hartley tried to help himself back up without his hands, "We know what transmutation is. _I_ specialize in it as well."

"So _that's_ why Wells wants you," he mused, finding his spot behind us again, "Interesting... Anyway, let's go to the video tape, shall we?"

Cisco and I faced the screen again, and did as told.

"Pause. Zoom in a few clicks... Now advance, frame by frame," He said, his tone kind again as he stood uncomfortably close behind Cisco.

The elderly man seemed to be holding a metal cage that contained a ball of burning matter - like my electron matter, only red and orange instead of white and blue. The ground shook in the clips, signifying the particle accelerator explosion, and Stein tripped, dropping the metal case, shattering the metal frame as the substance inside splashed all over him before a wave of energy hit him.

Releasing a material similar to electron matter? That couldn't be safe, especially in the face of a radioactive explosion...

I only handled electron matter with _complete_ physical protection.

Stein was in the middle of the alley we had been in earlier, the matter in his hands more or less exposed.

"His eyes..." Cisco murmured, "They turned white. Just like Ronnie's."

"Now stop there," Hartley suggested, pointing with tied hands to the screen again, "Look. In the mass of radioactive particle energy."

I faced the screen and gasped as I saw a ghostly yellow face, floating right into Stein.

"It looks like-"

"Ronnie," Cisco and I concluded together, eyebrows knit with worry.

" _And_ Professor Stein," Hartley added, leaning in closer to Cisco's face.

"The dark matter merged them together," Cisco mumbled in disbelief, as he played the clip at regular speed.

"This can't be good," I concluded, having a greater understanding of Ronnie's situation, even if I had never seen him in person.

"Explains why Ronnie hasn't seemed quite himself lately," Hartley conceded, reaching both hands up to pull the cochlear from his ear canal, wincing. I widened my eyes as I recognized the structure of the tiny device. Without thinking, I quickly leapt from my chair, grabbing his bounded hands as he pulled the cochlear hearing aid from his ear canal.

He shouted out in pain as I twisted his hand out of his sensitive ears. I ripped the device out of his device, dropping it to my feet before kicking it away.

"Cisco!" I shouted, trying to contain Hartley as he fought me with double-handed slaps and punches, poorly aimed but strong kicks, "Frequency! _Now!"_

Cisco understood and quickly pressed the dial on the frequency inducer.

Hartley immediately fell to his knees, wailing with anguish as the shrill pierce rang through the air.

"What was he doing?" Cisco asked. I took the frequency device from him and turned the dial so the sound was more injurious to Rathaway, evident by how he was crying out much louder now and writhing on the floor in sheer pain, hyperventilating and wincing.

"Stop! Stop! _STOP!_ " Hartley howled, his pained sobs screeching throughout the police department.

Barry and Joe soon ran up into the room.

"What's going on here?" Joe demanded.

I picked up the tiny worm-like cochlear hearing aid off of the floor.

"This, gentlemen," I announced, holding up the tiny device, "Is not just a hearing aid. It's a device which has a nuclear frequency of over 20,000 Hertz. Meaning, if snapped in half, it would induce temporary deafness upon everyone within its vicinity, while Hartley would easily get away, seeing how he's already immune to high-pitched sounds."

"How do you know?" Barry asked, watching as Cisco lifted a tortured Rathaway off of the floor, as he still cried out. Joe walked over to Barry's desk and threw us a roll of duct tape to silence Rathaway's sobs.

"For love's _sake_ , Allen - I'm a physicist. I freaking built bombs that operate on similar bases. I recognized the structure. I _told_ you I know nuclear frequency indexes."

Hartley's senses would no doubt be numbed insenate by now - he wouldn't be able to see, feel, taste, smell, let alone _hear_ \- as his brain unfortunately suffered more trauma at the hands of the device we built.

Awash in new found shock, I realized I didn't feel any pity or remorse for my actions, or the intense pain I was putting Hartley through.

Rathaway had tried to hurt us, did nothing but insult us, target us.

I wouldn't let him hurt anyone any longer, especially Cisco, whom he had clearly been aiming for when he attempted to power on the cochlear.

I nodded to Barry and he disappeared in a flash of lightning, returning in his sleek red suit.

Cisco finally turned off the sound in the frequency device, as Hartley reopened his eyes and found himself gagged, his cuffs tightened, looking at the four of us in fear as Barry and I picked him up off of the floor.

"Guess you're not as smart as you think you are, Rathaway," I crooned with a smile, pulling the other device from his ear, Hartley roaring insensibly behind the tape.

Barry gave me a proud grin before he disappeared with a helpless Rathaway, and Cisco gave me a huge hug.

Joe scowled at me, and placed his hand on his side, clearly upset about something.

"You've been building _bombs,_ you said?"

###

Cisco and I drove back to the Lab. Night had fallen, and I couldn't help but feel relieved that I had caught Rathaway before he had hurt us - more importantly, Cisco, Joe or Barry, or anyone else at the station.

"Martin Stein..." Cisco murmured out loud. I snapped back to reality and remembered what Hartley said.

"Cisco - I'm going to need more info on Ronnie. And Stein. Anything," I stated in worry, "I - I know how to help them."

"Artemis -"

"Cisco, I just - I'm going to need some time, but I can-"

"Artemis, Ronnie _died_ , though," Cisco finally managed in a quiet voice, "Whatever it is that's inside him - it's not him."

I fell silent, staggered by his words.

"Cisco, what are you..."

"I - I'm not sure. But the way things happened - Ronnie couldn't have survived."

"You've all seen him, though. Barry survived getting hit by lightning," I murmured.

Cisco sighed, and I parked my car in front of the Lab and Cisco and I entered the Cortex, sighing with relief as we returned to our familiar environment.

Two things were certain.

First, it hadn't been an easy day. Second, Rathaway was a jackass.

Dr. Wells and Caitlin were working together at the main computers. Wells saw us first.

"Ah. Ramon and Van Kleiss," he intoned with a light smile.

"Barry told us what happened before he went back to work," Caitlin stated proudly.

Cisco clasped me on the shoulder, grinning.

" _This_ girl," he raved, beaming, "Is going to be the subject of Hartley's nightmares for years to come."

I smiled, and returned the physical gesture.

"And _this_ guy has been the subject of Hartley's dreams in years past," I exclaimed, watching the horror paint itself on Wells' and Caitlin's faces before Wells rubbed at his eyes underneath his glasses, hiding a smile.

"Well, I can't say I didn't know that..."

"Dr. _Wells_!" Cisco half-gasped, half-shouted, his jaw dropping.

I saw Caitlin roll her eyes at Dr. Wells, and immediately remembered Ronnie at the sight of her. All signs of laughter leaving me, I went back to my lab.

###

A few hours later, I headed back into the Cortex. I felt I had more than enough evidence to prove that Ronnie could have survived and bounded excitedly into the Cortex to share the evidence with my teammates, when I paused, overhearing hushed murmurs in the Cortex.

"- just saying we need to be wary of Artemis," Dr. Wells advised grimly.

"Sir, how can you still say that?" Caitlin gasped quietly.

"Dr. Wells, she _stopped_ Hartley from escapi-" Cisco interposed.

"She's dangerous. She's no different from him. Yes, she's brilliant, and passionate about her work here, but Hartley had been too. You all saw what those devices she made were capable of."

"Dr. Wells, she would _never_ use them against us. Or anyone, for that matter."

"They - they were designed to stop metahumans!"

" _Barry's_ a metahuman. Don't forget that."

I forced a sob down in my throat.

After all these weeks, they still didn't trust me?

They thought I'd turn against - against _Barry?!_

"Dr. Wells! That's not true!" Caitlin protested quietly, "She _loves_ Barry! She loves all of us! And Cisco, myself and Barry love her just as much!"

"And Hartley loved _me_ , at one point," Dr. Wells maintained.

"She's nothing like him, sir!" Cisco countered, worry shining in his eyes, "She looks up to you like a father. How can you say something like this?!"

Was this... Was this why Barry didn't reciprocate the other night?

He didn't trust me?

Dr. Wells was feeding him lies about me?

 _No..._

After everything I had done, everything I had been through, after working relentlessly to prove myself to the Team, I was still an outsider.

"Cisco, use your brain," Wells replied, adamant about making me the enemy, "You saw for yourself how many similarities she shares with Hartley. She's walking in his footsteps, for crying out loud."

"Dr. Wells, you may be a world leader in physics, but you still have no clue about understanding people," Caitlin scolded.

"You're overthinking this," Cisco murmured, fiddling with some tool in his hands, looking away from Wells, "You're so hellbent on turning us against her. How could you-"

"Cisco, you _saw_ how ruthless she had been when stopping Hartley!" Wells muttered, "He was almost dead, in the condition she had left him when Barry brought him in a little while earlier. Imagine if that was _you_. Or Caitlin. Or Barry. You can't trust _love._ It's not permanent."

The duo fell silent, looked at their hands, not saying a single word.

"Dr. Wells, _Barry's_ done some pretty horrible things to metahumans."

"Yes, but he's done so for the sake of keeping the city safe," he countered, "It's permissible for him."

"Sir, what kind of logic is that?" Cisco rejected, "Hartley could've _killed_ us! If Artemis hadn't caught him, he'd have escaped!"

"We don't know if she has ulterior motives," Dr. Wells answered stubbornly, "Just as we hadn't known with Hartley. Be cautious around her, even if she is your friend. She could be manipulating you. She could be manipulating Barry-"

A tiny cracking sound escaped my throat, and the notes I had been holding dropped to the ground, spilling out as they layered the floor in white papers.

The trio turned to me with looks of surprise and horror, clearly not expecting to see me.

They thought I couldn't be trusted.

"Artemis," Caitlin murmured, Cisco getting up from his chair.

"Ar - Artemis, I had no idea you were here-" Dr. Wells began.

"Ronnie's alive," I interrupted, crouching to the floor to retrieve my work, avoiding eye contact, "I had...wanted to show you that I can prove it."

* * *

 **[Harrison Wells' POV]**

 _How could I have been such a fool as to not hear her enter?!_

No, it wasn't my fault. She had the footsteps of a cat, and the three of us had our backs to the hallway.

Absolutely foolish.

She silently led us upstairs to her laboratory, and it really did my heart a number to see her like that.

Her sadness was horrible to see, a stark contrast from her usually cheerful, friendly self, but I had to remind myself that this would be the first of many times I would hurt her.

 _This was nothing compared to when I'd kill her firstborn child._

 _You're going to need to be a little stronger, Artemis._

"Artemis, I-" Cisco attempted.

"Quiet," she ordered solemnly, walking ahead of us.

"Ms. Van Kleiss, you need to understand where I'm coming from," I tried, wheeling myself between Caitlin and Cisco, "Listen to me."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Wells," she answered, clenching her jaw as she fished out several keys off of her lanyard to unlock the door, "Maybe I'm a little hard of hearing. Like _Hartley_."

Her words stung.

It only got better when I began to wonder what Barry's reaction would be to finding out I had outcasted his beloved soulmate again.

Caitlin, Cisco and I waited outside as Artemis slipped into her lab, shutting the door behind her. Both of them glared at me darkly, until she reappeared, holding out protective lab coats and safety goggles.

"What you're about to see is one of the most powerful substances known to the universe," she stated calmly, avoiding eye contact with us as she passed out the items, "You'll want to be protected in case, oh, I don't know, I have ulterior motives."

Cisco and Caitlin both frowned, as Artemis held the door out to us, a heartbroken scowl on her face as she let us inside her lab.

She had redecorated, for starters.

All of the tables were huddled up in the middle of the room, creating a wide square platform. Each had a strange projector-like device on it.

Her desk was moved close to the center tables, and held piles of papers, picture frames, a laptop computer running a program I didn't recognize, and a lamp.

The portable fume hoods, chemical shelves, and other items had been moved to the back of the room, and in their place, was a giant structure looming at over 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide, but was covered by a white blanket.

It was evident that the room's focus was centered on the group of tables in the center, and the huge, hidden structure.

Cisco and Caitlin had their fair shares of looking around as well. We hadn't been invited into this lab in weeks.

Whatever it was that Artemis was up to, it was... strange.

"I'm going to turn the lights off. You'll want to put those goggles on now," Artemis advised grimly. The three of us obeyed, and the room went dark.

Footsteps were heard, and her silhouette appeared in front of the laptop. She typed something into the program, and each of the projectors on the tables suddenly turned on, one by one.

Artemis walked around the poorly made stage, and turned and placed the projectors so they were in a circle, pointed at the air above the center of the ring of projectors.

A loud whirring sound was heard, and Artemis then typed in another program, and each of the projectors fired thick shots of bluish white light into the air, colliding with the others around them. The strange light twisted and turned in an alien mass, hovering above the platform, occasionally sending off powerful flashes of multicolored energy, until the deafening whir stopped, and the giant ball of energy continued to writhe and contort in place, until its wild abilities died down, and we were looking at a wave of pure energy, circling around itself.

A supernova, trapped above the tables, glowing brightly in the darkness as it cast light around the darkened room.

She had made a supernova.

A supernova.

In.

My.

Lab.

I was about to drop my jaw out of awe, and out of respect.

Cisco had already done so.

"Artemis, what is this?" he mumbled, not blinking as he stared at the energy, slowly changing colors around the edges as supernovas do.

"I managed to tap into the hyper electron's raw nuclear energies," she sighed, typing something else into the program, "This is the energy I've been using in the machines that I showed you. It's highly versatile, but incredibly uncontrollable, and dangerous. I've been working hard to direct it into -"

We listened, as Artemis explained what the giant orb of glowing power above us was capable of. How she derived it from the original vankleissium. What the projector-like devices were. How they worked. What kind of potential this substance had.

The power.

Unbelievably strong, raw crackles of pure nuclear energy, glittering within the beautiful mass of that was twisting in its place above the platform.

I could feel it in the air, reverberating off of the nuclear energies, like waves crashing over me, charging me with unimaginable strength.

Vitality like I had never felt before.

The orb of energy was tempting me. Beckoning me forward.

It was a speedster's fountain of rejuvenation.

I had to touch it. I had to bathe in it. I had to feel that energy, coursing through my veins, empowering every inch of my body.

I needed it.

Artemis continued teaching us what the matter was, but she seemed distracted. Dejected. Miserable.

What she had in front of her would win her the first of many Nobels, would change the _world_ , and here she was, dragging her feet. Mumbling as she spoke. Avoiding eye contact with us. Slouching as she walked. Like a loser.

She walked over to her desk, before she slammed her fist on the wooden desktop in defeat, looking away.

"No fucking wonder he didn't say he loved me back," she muttered, her voice barely audible, "He doesn't trust me. Nobody here does..."

"Artemis?" I called out, jarring her back to us.

She completely ignored me, and moved over to one of the energy projectors, tinkering it until the color of the powerful matter above us changed again.

"Artemis - you're making history here!" Caitlin enouraged, "You've discovered something that's going to change the _future_ , but you're talking about it as it it's just another lost ball at a park..."

Van Kleiss scoffed softly, exhaling through her nose. She looked up at us, and in the glint of the light from the electron matter above us, I could see a deep frown had set in on her face, one that rose every hair on my arms.

"Yes, I'm making history. That, I know," She answered morosely, "What I don't know is why you all still think I'm a danger to you."

" _Hey_ ," Cisco demanded, walking up to her. He frowned at her, but put a reassuring hand at the side of her arm, "For what it's worth, _I_ don't think that. I never have. You're just as much of a hero to me as Barry is. You're one of the greatest people I've ever met, and you're one of my best friends. You're not a danger to anybody... except maybe Hartley."

The girl's bottom lip quivered, but she offered Cisco a weak smile. He took her into his arms for a caring hug to drive his point home.

Caitlin walked over, and joined them, wrapping her arms around Van Kleiss as well.

"You know we don't think of you as a threat. We never have," Caitlin murmured, "You're one of the most dedicated people I've met, and you're like a younger sister to me. I'm proud to be able to work alongside someone like you... I have no words for what Dr. Wells said earlier. But neither Cisco nor myself, nor Barry agree with him."

At the sound of my name, they locked harsh, unforgiving glances on me.

They wanted an explanation.

I had wanted to take off my goggles and glasses, as I did when I was to speak something from my heart, but I could feel the aura of the electron matter searing into my skin, threatening danger.

Eye exposure was not an option.

"I want what's best for my scientists," I stated, "And you have the potential to do _plenty_ of harm. I already have a former physicist locked up in my own prison after he attacked my team - with tech he built under _my_ guidance. I don't want that story to repeat itself."

"That's no excuse to turn your Lab against me," Artemis warned, pulling away from Cisco and Caitlin, "I haven't done anything. And I don't plan on to. What is it about me that gives you reason to believe otherwise?"

I pressed my lips together.

 _You're going to betray this team._

 _You're going to become more dangerous to me than Barry ever would be._

 _You're the biggest threat I will have ever faced._

 _You're a cute little scientist now, but one day you'll become something so terrifying, your parents will be shivering in their graves._

"I have my reasons, Artemis."

Her frown deepened, and Cisco's phone beeped as he read the alert notification.

He scowled.

"There's an issue down in the Pipeline. Near Hartley's chamber," he described quietly, slipping his phone back in his pocket, "I gotta check this out, just in case."

"Do you want me to come with you?" Artemis asked, her face set with sudden worry.

"No. It shouldn't be a problem," Cisco answered, giving her a tiny, but promising smile as he left, leaving me with a brokenhearted Artemis and an angry Caitlin.

Artemis glowered at me before she faced Caitlin, leading her by the shoulder to show her a theory she had, which would prove Ronnie's survival once and for all.

Enchanted by the electron matter above me, I tried to think of ways I could harness it for myself.

Gideon would have no answers.

Maybe I could goad Artemis into using the material to help Barry, snap some for myself along the way.

 _No._

The electron matter was highly dangerous. I couldn't risk any harm to Barry.

I needed him in perfect shape.

No.

Whatever that energy offered me - I'd need to get it on my own. But I could sense the potential, in the way the energy resonated through the air.

It would make me the fastest, most powerful speedster alive.

I would be able to kill Barry Allen once and for all...

Caitlin smiled as Artemis gave her a whispered explanation, purposely excluding me, and Artemis clapped her hands together as she happily concluded her lecture.

"All I would need now are samples of DNA that belonged to both Ronnie and Stein, and I'd need to figure out what it was Stein was holding when the particle accelerator's dark matter fused them together, and, of course, Ronnie Raymond himself, and you'll find yourself with a living, breathing _human_ fiance again!"

"Really?" Caitlin asked, widening her eyes in astonishment.

Artemis smiled and nodded.

"I - I - would a biostructure work?" Caitlin inquired excitedly, "It's the one you and I had been analyzing the day you had gotten kidnapped by Thompson."

"I asked for a DNA sample and you want to give me a molecular biostructure... Caitlin, I thought you were a doctor. _Yes_ , it will work," Artemis retorted warmly, giving Caitlin a genuine smile.

"When will you need it?" The latter asked, full of hope.

"I can take it any time," Artemis promised, shrugging with her signature grin, "I still need to gather the remaining information, but the sooner I can begin to collect my evidence to start the procedure, the sooner you'll become Caitlin Raymond."

Caitlin put both of her hands to her mouth, unable to contain her happiness, and grabbed Artemis in a bear hug, before leaving to go to her lab to retrieve the sample of Ronnie's DNA.

I was left in the room with Van Kleiss.

Her smile melted into a grimace as she realized the same thing, and she looked away, turning off the beautiful electron matter, letting it dissolve from the air, at the hands of the program in her computer.

I felt the rush of energy, the fleeting, excited sensation leave my body once the supernova was gone.

That program in her computer...

I _had_ to know how it worked.

I needed to win her back over, first.

"Artemis, you do understand where I'm coming from, correct?" I pressed gently.

"No, sir," she muttered, not looking at me.

"Van Kleiss. Look at me."

"Why? What's there to look at, other than the face of a man who sees me as a traitor? I'm _not_ Hartley. I'm not going to hurt Barry, or Caitlin or Cisco. _Or_ you," she answered, powering off the laptop computer.

I could feel my mouth turn into an unsatisfied sneer.

You're not Hartley.

Not yet, anyway.

"Artemis, I need to look out for my team. I - I don't know you as well as I know Barry, Caitlin and Cisco. You're more valuable to them than you know, and that is why you're a potential threat."

"That literally makes no sense, si-"

 _(Dr. Wells! There's been a security breach in the Pipeline!)_ Cisco yelled over the PA system. His warning was soon followed by the sound of a rumble underneath our feet.

An explosion.

Hartley.

Artemis and I both widened our eyes, and she turned around, frantically scurried toward the door.

" _Don't!_ " I shouted, instinctively getting my phone to call Barry, "This isn't your fight!"

"Sir, Cisco-"

"Artemis, _please,"_ I pleaded, grabbing her wrist with my other hand. _Why wasn't Barry answering?!_

"Hartley - you can't stop him. He's going to kill you."

"What?!" Artemis gasped, fear striking her eyes, "How do you know that?! Let me go. Cisco could've gotten _hurt_ , sir!"

"Stay here," I begged, watching helplessly as she twisted her wrist out of my hand, grabbed something from the one of the desks, and turned to leave.

" _Artemis_ ," I growled, out of fear more than anger.

She paused and turned around.

"Let _Barry_ handle this."

"Why should it make a difference who-"

"Artemis. Van. _Kleiss_ ," I seethed, my voice hard, facing her confused desperation with a horrible scowl, " _Listen_ to me. Hartley could be here any second. You have to stay here where it's safe. He's - he's looking for _you_."

She gave me a powerless look.

"Sir, please-"

Whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the sound of a powerful physical blow, and she weakly fell against the blanketed structure with an echoing metal _CLANGGGGG_ , falling to the ground.

Blood streaked the blanket, where her head had hit it.

"No," I muttered, watching as Hartley stepped over her lifeless body, with an entertained, disparaging smirk spread over his face.

"That's one down, Wells," he asserted, smiling down at her as he dropped the heavy iron crowbar.

A tiny puddle of blood pooled under her head.

I pushed myself off of my wheelchair, and stood up, angry footsteps leading me right to him.

I held up a hand in front of him, buzzing as it began to vibrate, ready to shoot through his torso.

"That's _enough,_ " I threatened, easily looking down at him.

His smirk deepened, and he raised an eyebrow over his glasses.

"Awww. I'm terrified," he taunted, "What are you going to do to me, speedster?"

I scowled, as I could feel the strength in my legs falter.

 _No. Not now._

Hartley sneered as he lifted up a foot and gently pushed it into the front of my calf, forcing his foot forward.

"You're not as scary as you look, time-traveler."

No.

My legs weren't as strong as they needed to be yet. I couldn't maintain my balance, and Hartley stepped aside with an easy smile as I toppled forward, holding out my hands to catch my fall, grunting as the impact attacked me faster than I could stop it.

Hartley crouched down, tipped my chin up, a malevolent grin on his face.

"Artemis Van Kleiss, huh? I've heard of her. Her parents were physicists who were mysteriously murdered."

"You'll ruin the timeline," I managed, "Don't kill her."

"The timeline?" Hartley mused, faking puzzlement, "You mean the one you're hiding in your little room upstairs?"

"Don't-"

"I know it was you, Wells. Or whoever you really are," he answered, getting up, dusting his hands, "And I also know who your protege speedster son is."

"No," I gasped.

 _Barry._

I needed to get up. I needed to stop Hartley before he left.

But I was helpless.

For once, I wasn't able to do anything.

"I met him today, actually. The poor fool forgot to disguise his voice in front of me. Cisco and your little _femme fatale_ here led me right to him," Hartley continued, walking back out the door, throwing Artemis one last smile before he left, his voice ringing in the halls, "His name is Joseph West. He's a detective at the CCPD. And I'm going to pay him a little visit."

I had to get up. I had to get off of the ground, gather the team to stop Hartley.

But all strength had left my legs.

I wasn't strong enough.

The tachyon device in my wheelchair was revitalizing, but it had its limits.

Another reason why I needed the hyper electron as a new source of energy...

I soon heard a feminine shout from the Cortex, followed by the sound of a body dropping, and scampering footsteps which soon diminished from earshot.

Hartley had just taken care of his last obstacle in the lab before he escaped - Caitlin.

I heard a whimper beside me, and saw Artemis stir, turning her head in the pool of dark blood at her skull.

"Van Kleiss," I choked, grabbing her ankle and shaking it, "Get up. You need medical help."

But what medical help could she receive?

Caitlin was no doubt unconscious.

Cisco - Cisco could be _dead._

"What," she murmured, sitting up, one hand immediately at her temple, the side of her face soaked in fresh blood.

"Go. _Now."_

She widened her eyes at the sight of me struggling to get up, and quickly shot forward with surprise strength.

"Sir! Are you okay?" She yelped, grabbing me under the shoulders, grappling the heavy weight of my torso into her arms, as she finally set me down in my wheelchair a few paces behind me.

"I'm fine," I rasped, surprised that she was showing me kindness after what I had said to her only moments earlier.

"Get the team. Hartley's looking for Barry."

Fear flickered in her eyes, and she nodded before she ran out the door.

"Caitlin!" I heard her plead as I wheeled into the Cortex, shaking the woman on the ground, "Caitlin, _please._ Get up. Caitlin-"

The other woman murmured something insensible, and lazily opened her eyes, before they flew open in fear as she saw Artemis's horrifyingly bloodied face.

"Hartley-" Caitlin began, the two of them rising.

"Call Barry. He needs to know Hartley's after him," Artemis stated imperatively, leaving towards the Pipeline, "I'm going to go see if Cisco's okay."

"Your head-"

"There's no time," and Artemis was gone.

"Dr. Snow, are you alright?" I asked grimly as the two of us began the second operation to take down Hartley today. I tried and tried again to call Barry.

"I'm fine," she muttered, as she typed something into the screens, no doubt trying to track him down.

 _(Dr. Wells,)_ Barry finally answered, _(What happened?)_

"Hartley's escaped. He's headed for the CCPD. He thinks Joe's the Flash."

Instantly, a bolt of lightning traveled through the Cortex before it left just as quickly, leaving behind a pile of denim and flannel, heralding the fact that Barry had donned his suit.

Artemis and Cisco returned. Thankfully, the latter was okay, aside from a badly bloodied nose.

"He exploded the chamber using his cochlear devices," Cisco explained, frustrated, "Did Barry not take it from him?"

"I wasn't aware of the cochlear at all," Caitlin answered.

"Neither was I..."

"How do we stop him?" Artemis asked, as her and Cisco began typing into the computers, before they both turned exasperated.

"Dammit, the system's all messed up!" Cisco muttered, hitting a certain key repeatedly, "Some of our core files have been jumbled up. The communcations system - it's _busted!_ We can't reach Barry!"

"What?!" I asked, scowling.

"They're right," Caitlin affirmed, "I'm encountering similar issues. The mainframes for our memory and storage - they've also been destroyed."

" _Hartley,_ " Cisco cursed, as worry began to settle into his face, "There's no way I'll able to reboot our satellite connections in time! Hartley shut the system down completely!"

" _Barry_ ," Artemis gasped as she scrolled through the screen, "Caitlin, he stole all of our files on Barry! The specs for his suit, his biological data, his vitals and responses, his molecular scans - they're all _gone!_ "

 _No._

Hartley had all of our information on Barry...

This couldn't be happening...

"Artemis," Cisco exhaled, color drained from his face, "Do you remember when we were looking at his gloves earlier today?"

"The sonic resonance was set to the lowest setting," she responded, her voice full of worry.

"And we were wondering why he didn't turn the decibels up and just destroy his father's building in one blast?" Cisco continued.

He was onto something.

But if he was right, then that meant...

"He didn't want to destroy the building..." Artemis realized, fear taking over her tone.

"He _wanted_ to get caught," the two of them murmured together, their suspicions proven.

"This had been his plan all along," Caitlin realized, before she stood up, pale, "Guys... That means Hartley has Barry's molecular frequency. He knows which resonance to use to kill him."

"Cisco, we know Hartley went towards the CCPD," I ordered immediately, "Scan for local tremors. Sonic blasts will cause vibrations in the earth's surface."

"At least that jackass didn't screw over our other systems," Cisco answered, monitoring results from our GPS, "I'm picking up seismic disturbances near downtown. Two streets away from the police department - Fountain Lane. There's no fault line there. He's on his way to the CCPD."

"Traffic cams show Barry's there with him," Caitlin described, her brow furrowed as she turned on the audio.

The footage showed Hartley shooting soundwaves into the cars and buildings, the impact pushing them out of his way.

The Flash appeared in a quick jolt of light, punching him right in the face, sending Hartley into a projectile trajectory backwards.

 _(You're done.)_ Barry voiced.

Hartley propped himself up on an elbow, wiped away at the blood on his mouth with his heavy gloved hand.

 _( You're the one who's done for, Barry.) _Hartley crooned.

Barry leaned forward, about to break into a run towards him, but Hartley was primed for the attack.

He shot out several powerful waves, Barry dodging each of them, darting closer and closer until he reached Hartley, and ripped the gloves off of Hartley's hands, as he had done in the morning.

"We have to get him out of there," I demanded, "Quick."

"But how? His commlinks are dead, remember?" Cisco inquired.

 _(It's over!)_ Barry shouted, the Pied Piper being knocked back once again.

Hartley wore a dark scowl under his huge, black hood.

 _(Amazing,)_ he sneered in disgust, _(Wells replaced me with you. And Artemis. But she's dead. I killed her myself while you were out of the lab. Cracked her skull right open, while you were playing dress-up at the CCPD, pretending to be someone else. Her demise was quite tragic, really...)_

"Oh fuck no," Artemis cursed in worry, watching as disbelief shadowed Barry's face, heartbreak flashing through his eyes.

On the screen, Barry grabbed Hartley ferociously and picked him up.

 _(She was smart. She didn't trust Wells,)_ Hartley laughed, not acknowledging the fierceness with which Barry was holding him, _(But you're not like her. You're a fool. A total moron. And you just fell for the same trick twice.)_

Hartley pulled out a small device, and behind Barry, the sonic gloves on the ground began to shake violently.

We could hear a ghostly, echoing shrill explode from the gloves through our speakers.

Meaning it must have been deafening in real life.

Barry let out an agonizingly pained scream, and he began to vibrate - but uncontrollably. And in huge pulses. He doubled over, spewing blood.

"No," Artemis whispered, before she frantically dashed out of the Cortex, her chair swiveling from the momentum.

We didn't have time to wonder where she went, or why she left.

 _(Hear that?)_ Hartley inquired, walking over to a shaking Barry, who continued to shoot blood from his mouth, falling to the ground as he tried to get up, _(That's the sound of your organs searing apart. Hope you're enjoying the show, Wells!)_

"We need to do something. _Now_ ," Caitlin pressed, tears in her eyes, "Barry will be dead in minutes."

"Dr. Wells - _please,_ " Cisco urged, both of them giving me pleading looks.

They didn't need to beg.

I couldn't lose my way home... Barry needed to be saved.

I wheeled myself over to Cisco's computer, ready to try something very absurd, when footsteps were heard behind us.

"Fountain Lane, right?" Artemis asked, running into the Cortex, a huge black carbine-style gun propped against her shoulder as she grabbed her car keys off of a table.

"Yes," I found myself saying.

Cisco widened his eyes and rose from his chair.

"Artemis - are you mad?!" He shouted.

"Hartley will kill you!" Caitlin yelled.

"Too bad. I'm not going to sit here and watch Barry's die," she scorned, cocking the gun before she ran out to leave.

" _Van Kleiss_ -" I called, the woman turning to me in surprise, "First things first - hide your face. You don't want anyone picking you up on the traffic cams, and finding out you have connections to the Flash."

She frowned, and lifted the hood of her black jacket, eerily looking like a younger, slender female version of Hartley, armed with a dangerous nuclear gun.

I ignored the shudders washing down my spine, and swiped my glasses off of my face.

"Whatever you're about to do - disarm Hartley _immediately,_ and _don't_ fall for his tricks," I advised urgently, "You need to be careful. He's a _master_ of disguise. He's a _master_ of hiding his true endgame."

After all, he _was_ my prodigal son...

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

I was _not_ going to let myself find Barry dead, I finalized.

I wove my car through the streets at more than 100 miles per hour, emergency indicators blaring to keep cops away as I swerved through packed roads and through neighborhood streets.

Hartley James Rathaway was going to regret not killing me properly. He was going to regret hurting Cisco and Caitlin, and he was going to pay for what he was doing to Barry.

 _If_ Barry was still alive.

Speeding past the CCPD, I arrived at an unusually cleared out Fountain Lane, and _felt_ Hartley's presence before I saw him.

The vibrations, fleeting through the air, pulsing in the windows of my car and through the ground, ruining my control over the car's breaks and acceleration systems.

Blood began to pound in my skull, aching in my ears as the shrill, reverberating noise got louder and more intense as I pounded my foot on the accelerator, forcing my car forward.

My windows exploded in a burst of soundwaves.

There he was, looking at me in surprise, and there was Barry, gripping his head as he helplessly vomited blood onto the pavement.

"Rathaway," I muttered, my vision doubling as the pain became more and more unbearable.

I struggled to grab the paralyzing gun from the passenger seat, my body turning incredibly hot and shaking involuntarily as the sound began to cut through me furiously.

"Van Kleiss," the villain mused, his voice clear through the shrill sound as he stepped towards me as I got out of the car.

I wished my hands, arms, torso, skull - wished they would stop _trembling_ , wanting the pain to end.

But this frequency wouldn't kill me. It wouldn't hurt a regular human.

This resonance was designed to murder Barry...

Somehow, the fact that I would live and Barry wouldn't caused me physical pain.

"Didn't think you'd _lived_. Did you come here to die, tragic-romance style?" Hartley sneered, "The Romeo and Juliet way?"

"You know how to read?" I amazed weakly, feeling blood pool in my mouth, my teeth ready to fall out at the pace they were chattering.

The sharp pulsating sound intensified, and I forced myself not to buckle.

" _Those_ are you last words?" Rathaway taunted, his voice becoming quieter as the shrill noise became more intense, "You would think she'd have learned to die properly the second time around."

"Only a _coward_ attacks their enemies while they're distracted."

My instincts lifting up the carbine, fingers at the trigger, I scowled.

"What are _your_ last words, Hartley?"

He widened his eyes under his hood, and held up his hands, before I shot anyway - powerful surges of blinding white energy, finally shutting him up.

I pursed my now cracked lips as I put more pressure on the trigger, before I stopped and pointed the muzzle up, and watched silently as Hartley fell face-first onto the concrete.

The noise.

It was still being emitted from those terrible gloves, and Barry's shivers had reduced to a minimum. He was barely moving at all.

Without a second thought, I shot the gun into the black gloves, only meters away from me, both of them exploding into bits of leather and metal debris, and the sound stopped. My ears went into a crisp shock at the sound of pure silence, and my eyes fleeted back to Barry, no longer writhing in pain.

"Hey - hey Flash," I called out gently, rushing over to him, shaking him.

I couldn't tell if he was breathing or not - Caitlin said his respiratory system was different from a normal human's, more resilient, different stability, whatever that meant...

But I couldn't feel breath from his nose or his bloodied mouth.

Rathaway - I _swore_ I'd kill him if anything happened to Barry. Anything at all...

I pulled Barry's head into my lap, and tried again to revive him, this time with CPR.

"Barry, come on. Please," I pleaded desparately, hands pushing quick, short compressions into his suited chest, "You can't do this to me. Wake up. You're alive. _Please."_

One more bloodcurdling minute of silence, as I fruitlessly continued on.

Another.

And a third.

 _Numb._ That's how I felt, looking down at Barry's unresponsive, frigid body.

I couldn't breathe. Sobs were clogging up my airways.

I lost track of the time as I fought on, unable to process my lack of success, as my eyes filled with hot tears, and an unrestrained weeping sound left my throat.

He wasn't waking up...

My world was slowly coming to an end.

Both hands slowly covered my face, and I indulged myself in letting myself finally break down into tears.

 _Barry..._

A fragile, gloved hand pulled at my forearm, surprising me, and I gasped, as he took my wrist in his hands and gave me a weak smile.

"You idiot!" I screeched, pulling him up into an inescapable hug, "What did you think you were doing? Are you okay? Barr - Flash?"

"Hartley-"

"Hartley's unconscious. He's been paralyzed. What happened to you? Are you alright?"

He gave me a rather worried, bewildered look, but placed his hands on my face.

"He - he told me he killed you..."

I put my hands at his wrists. Something wasn't right...

"I'm fine... We're all fine. Are you okay?"

He shook his head and opened his mouth as if to say something, before he closed it again, panic in his eyes.

"Artemis... Artemis, I can't hear you..."

###

"Auditory shock," Caitlin called it. Something along the lines of a temporary neural response to intense exposure to loud sounds.

In other words, he'd be fine, given his advanced healing abilities.

Barry was more or less still hard of hearing by the time we returned to STAR Labs, but he insisted he was getting better.

Hartley, too, had regained consciousness upon our return.

"Yay! You won! Woohoo!" he jeered sarcastically, spit flying from his mouth.

We both ignored him as we walked him through the curved tunnel in the Cortex.

"What do you say we celebrate with drinks, eh? A quick trip to the bar?" He asked again, "I'm up for some classic chardonnay."

I silenced him with a deadly glare, and Cisco, Dr. Wells, and Caitlin gave happy, relieved smiles at the sight of Barry, up and about.

"...psychotic bitch," I heard Rathaway mutter.

I paused and pinched the bridge of my nose with my eyes closed, tried to control my breathing in the hopes that it would fight my anger away.

"I honestly wish I'd killed you properly. Then _he'd_ be dead too, and-"

"Alright - you know what?" I seethed, turning and dealing Hartley a roundhouse kick in his soft spot.

"Woah there!" Cisco delighted, running up to me as we watched Hartley fall from a very surprised Barry's arms, clutching himself, mewling in pain.

Scowling, I picked him up off of the floor from the back of his coat, and guided Barry by the arm to Caitlin. I half-led, half-dragged a high-pitched Hartley back down to the Pipeline, as he winced curses. Dr. Wells and Cisco followed behind me.

"That was a low blow," Hartley groaned at me, "Both metaphorically and literally."

"Says the asshat willing to _kill_ two people because he got a little jealous," I answered, gritting my teeth.

"You kicked me in the _balls_ , Van Kleiss!"

"I'm _sorry,_ Hartley, I didn't know you had a penis!" I raved as I pushed him into his Pipeline chamber, "I was under the false impression that only _men_ had them."

I heard snickering behind me and saw Cisco bent over at the waist, hitting his knee as he tried to fight the cackles eliciting from the back of his throat, and Dr. Wells was hiding a smile behind his fingers.

"You're going to let me out of here," Hartley pressured, hands against the glass, "I know you will."

"You never learn, do you?" Cisco inquired, "She's kicked your sorry ass like four times today. Jeez."

I heard footsteps behind us and saw Caitlin appear. She gave me a knowing nod, indicating Barry was okay.

"Well if it isn't the original gang..." Hartley mused, "This was pretty clever. Re-purposing the anti-proton cavities into confinement cells. Wells's idea, I'm sure."

Dr. Wells grimaced.

"How did you know we were working with the Flash in the first place?" He asked calmly.

"Easy," Hartley muttered, "I wrote a hexagonal algorithm tracking all of his sightings, extrapolating a theoretical exit trajectory. In other words, every time he ran from the scene of a crime, he ran in this general direction."

I cackled loudly at his words.

"HA!" I shouted, my voice echoing through the chamber. Rathaway was startled by the sound of my voice, "Look at this guy! He thinks he's so cool, with his hexagonal algorithms and his trackings. Hahahahahah. Don't make me _laugh_ , Hartley!"

Cisco stifled a smile, and Dr. Wells turned to give me an unsure look.

I continued to relentlessly embarrass Hartley.

"You had to use a hexagonal algorithm?! Are you really that stupid? Oh wow- Dr. Wells, I can't believe you thought this guy was smart! _I_ figured out the Flash was connected to STAR Labs using nothing but my wits. Guess Hartley just doesn't have any of his own, am I ri-"

 _"Stop,"_ Caitlin warned gently, and I immediately obeyed.

Hartley's smug grin melted, and he looked at me with a worried look.

"You're laughing now, Artemis," he crooned, "You won't be laughing when Wells destroys you. Or your little superhero boyfriend. I'm sure both of you have felt tension in your easygoing relationships with Dr. Wells. He's going to use you for his own good-"

"Hartley, that's enough," Dr. Wells snapped.

Hartley's words rose the hairs on my arms, and I listened, all hilarity gone.

"You may think he's on your side, but I know his true secret," Hartley continued, "You know where to find me if you want more answers as to who the mysterious Dr. Wells _really_ is, and why he targets you.."

"Can I have a second?" I murmured. Caitlin and Cisco nodded and turned away to leave. Dr. Wells gave me a worried look, blatantly obeying my request for privacy.

I ignored him.

"What do you know about him, Hartley?" I asked.

He had sat down against the back wall of his chamber, feet hooked over at the ankles.

"He's not who he says he is," Hartley stated, before he raised an eyebrow, "And he's keeping secrets from you about who _you_ really are."

"About _me_?" I scoffed incredulously.

"You aren't _really_ a Van Kleiss, you see..." Hartley answered coolly.

"Yes I _am_ ," I answered vehemently, "My parents were Laurus and Ariad-"

"That's what he wants you to believe..." He replied, picking at his nail, "You're not really their daughter."

" _What?"_

"Ever run a DNA test?"

 _No, I hadn't_...

But did I need to?

Hartley was making stuff up at this point.

Saying whatever he wanted to get himself out of this chamber.

"Take that blood test. You'll no doubt be unhappy at what you find," Hartley declared, "Your boyfriend, Barry? The Flash? Wells let the particle accelerator explode. He wanted to create him. He has a special plan in store for him. _You?_ Well, you won't like what he's got planned out for you."

"Ms. Van Kleiss, he's tried several times to kill you today," Wells interjected, "You saw what he did to Barry. Would you really believe him?"

"I gave you the answers you wanted about Ronnie," Hartley maintained, giving me a look of honesty, of promise, "And trust me. I _was_ jealous of you and Barry for having taken over my roles in the Lab, but I also attacked to get back at _him_. He's dangerous beyond your comprehension. He's manipulative, secretive - he knows how to get what he wants, and he knows how to disguise his true desires, make them seem altruistic. He'll use you, like he used me, and once he doesn't need you anymore, you had best wish he kill you, so you won't have to deal with any suffering."

"Artemis..."

"Leave while you still can. Leave while you still have a happy life. He'll take it away from you."

I tensed, felt my fingers curl into a fist.

Something wasn't right.

"Hartley, who is Dr. Wells? And what does he want with us?"

"He's from the fu-"

"Artemis, you know _exactly_ what I want," Dr. Wells urged, taking off his glasses, "I only want what's best for my team."

"And what's best for the team doesn't include my friendship," I answered dourly, avoiding eye contact with him.

"Now would be the time to prove me wrong," Dr. Wells replied, wheeling a few paces forward, "Are you going to choose to listen to someone who physically attacked your friends, or are you going to listen to your mentor, who has been actively looking out for your team, has been fully supportive of your work, has been contributing _everything_ he has in order to compensating for the particle accelerator explosion, to try and fix the damage I made?"

"Don't listen to him, Artemi-"

"Moments such as these are the reasons why I doubt you. Make your choice."

"Van Kleiss, you don't need his approval. He's a liar. I have answers."

Hartley had answers. Dr. Wells had my friends.

Hartley wasn't trustworthy.

Dr. Wells thought _I_ wasn't trustworthy.

Dr. Wells thought I was just like Hartley...

I turned away and raised a hand against the chamber's control panel, and shut Hartley behind a Pipeline vault, sending his chamber into the accelerator. He was feeding me garbage.

Wells was a creep, but not _that_ big of a creep.

 _Letting the accelerator explode? Create the Flash?_ Dr. Wells was nothing but apologies - for both of those incidents.

Dr. Wells gave me a small smile.

"I knew you wouldn't falter."

"If you had known I wouldn't falter, you wouldn't have been questioning which choice I would make."

###

Upstairs in the Cortex, Caitlin and Cisco were accompanying Barry, who was sitting on the gurney in Caitlin's medical wing, redressed in his dark jeans and the flannel shirt he had worn to work that day. I broke into a run and tackled him with a desperate hug, and his mouth covered mine in an urgent kiss, our arms wound tightly around each other.

"I'm so glad you're okay," I murmured after we pulled away, my forehead against his.

Barry gently cupped my jaw with both hands, and sighed deeply.

"He told me he'd killed you. I pretty much died on the inside when I heard that."

"Oh dude. Watching them is even better than a DiCaprio movie..." a male voice snorted behind us.

"Cisco?" Caitlin murmured cautiously.

"Now's not the time?"

"Nope."

"Got it."

I sighed and put my hand to Barry's cheek.

"He won't be bothering anyone in a long time. We're safe," I stated, giving Barry a smile.

He smiled back and dropped a soft kiss on the inside of my wrist.

"Actually," Caitlin said, stepping forward and pulling Barry off of the gurney before pushing me onto it, "You're safe, Barry, but she's not. Not yet, anyway. This one here needs stitches."

She emphasized her point by lifting up a flap of hair from the side of my head, revealing the area where Hartley had gotten me with that crowbar.

Now, I had passed it off as just a cut and tried my best to ignore the pain, but judging from how quickly the color disappeared from Barry's face, I got the idea it was worse than I thought.

I rolled my eyes and prepared to lay down, until I saw Dr. Wells had quietly entered the room, and had been watching us, not saying a word.

I scowled and lay down anyway.

* * *

 **[Dr. Wells's POV]**

Caitlin finished suturing Artemis's cut a lot faster than I had imagined, and the group readied themselves to go home. I made a show of calling my nonexistent caretaker, assuring them I'd be fine, and they left.

But I wasn't going to go home, not yet anyway.

I had other plans for tonight.

I poured two glasses of soothing drinks - my speedster wine, and French chardonnay, before I added a bit of a special white powder to the second glass, stirring it until it dissolved completely within the sparkling yellow drink, and set up a familiar chess board in my office for my guest.

I rose from my wheelchair, and took the two glasses down with me to the Pipeline, and keyed in the passcode in the control panel, bringing out the desired chamber from the particle accelerator.

Hartley awoke in his cell, and watched with fearful eyes as I unlocked the gate to his chamber.

"What are you up to?" He murmured, eyebrows furrowed, voice small and afraid as he rose off the floor, unsure of what to make of his new freedom.

"Come," I invited, smiling as I held the glass of poisoned chardonnay out to him, "I owe you an apology."

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

I wasn't aware of how much time had passed since we had been in the Cortex, but I remember Caitlin had begun administering anesthesia, so I was pretty knocked out by the time they brought me home.

While I was phasing in and out of unconsciousness, I heard faraway voices discoursing.

"-ow did Hartley escape in the first place?" Barry's voice inquired.

"You saw that little cochlear hearing aid he tried to attack us with in your lab, right?" Cisco asked, "He must have used one similar to it to explode his cell open."

Then my brain blanked out, before I awoke again.

"-ouldn't _believe_ what Dr. Wells was accusing her of," Caitlin murmured.

 _"What?"_

"He - he says we should be careful around her, and that she might be using us..." Cisco explained cautiously, " _I_ told him he was being absur-"

" _Using_ us?" Barry exclaimed in disbelief, "How would she be _using_ us? She's an active member of the team! She's helped us in every way she can! She's my _girlfriend,_ for crying out loud!"

"Barry, that's what we tried to tell hi-" Caitlin attempted, before she was interrupted.

"She doesn't even let me pay for our dates half the time! Trust me. I've given her _plenty_ of opportunities to use me, and she turns them _all_ down!"

"Bro," Cisco chided, "Too much information."

"I-I didn't mean it like that-"

"Uh-huh. _Totally_ believe you, Barry-"

"Cisco, you _know_ that's not what I meant!"

"You know, I was _wondering_ how you both hit it off so well-"

 _"Cisc-"_

"Guys," Caitlin scolded, cutting them both off, "We have bigger issues to worry about? Dr. Wells? Always picking on Artemis? Remember that?"

"Yeah, it's as if he's purposely trying to create a wedge between us and her..." Cisco added, "It doesn't make sense."

"She's been working so hard at the Lab, both with her hyper electron and with our operations," Caitlin stated, "I don't know what Wells is so afraid of..."

"Maybe Wells had some major _deja vu,_ what with those glasses and that unmovable attitude. He really did like Hartley... Maybe he's just paranoid Artemis will turn out like him?"

"Do you think it's _me_?" Barry asked quietly, "Do you think Wells is afraid of her because of her connection to me?"

"What, like she'll turn _vindictive_ over you, or something?" Cisco scoffed, " _Please._ She's one of the most level-headed people we know."

"No, she's not. She builds bombs, light sabers, and Modern Warfare-esque guns, and kicked Hartley in the nuts."

"I stand corrected. But you know what I meant," Cisco replied earnestly, "She's not the type to pull a Vanessa Redlynn on you. She knows what's at stake. She knows what the Flash means to the city. And she respects Dr. Wells, even if it's not mutual..."

"So why is he so wary of her?" Barry pressed again.

"Honestly? It _has_ to either be you or her work on the hyper electron," Caitlin replied, "But neither of those make any sense. She's been a great help to the Team. I can't imagine her not being a part of it - she loves all of us. And the hyper electron..."

 _"Bro_ , you should have seen it," Cisco gushed, "One minute, we're in a boring, poorly organized lab room. The next, Kepler's Star is floating in place above this platform she built. She created the thing herself - she would've made Hawking proud, dear Lord. Even Dr. Wells had fallen quiet. The guy was awestruck."

A moment of silence passed...

"Dr. Wells was quiet?" Barry asked, "He's usually so skeptical with her work. He always asks her so many questions..."

"Yeah, you're right..." Caitlin responded, "He... He hadn't said a word..."

Then - I slipped into unconsciousness again.

"-artley had fried our communications systems. We had _no_ way of contacting you."

"-literally just took her gun and ran right out of the lab."

"And you _let_ her go?" Barry asked, a bit heartbroken, "Did neither of you realize how much danger she could have put herself in?"

"Dude, she was hell-bent on it. Went into Barry's Overprotective Girlfriend Mode again. She - she really does care for you..."

"Yeah... She wouldn't have stopped for anyone," Caitlin said, "I doubt I've seen anyone care for someone like that. She really does love you, Barry."

I heard Barry sigh.

"She's _not_ going to do anything that risky ever again, understand?"

"Hey - don't tell _us_. Tell _her_ , when she wakes up. _We_ tried to warn her."

"Barry, if she hadn't gone, we could've lost you. She did the right thing," Caitlin countered gently, "She's very brave. And selfless. You're lucky to have her, you know."

I heard silence.

"Barry, how's your relationship with her going, by the way?"

"Hm? Oh - it's fine. It's going spectacularly-"

"Yeah, they share a Netflix account. And we _all_ know what that means."

"Drop it," Both Barry and Caitlin ordered.

"I was going to say it means they've established a stable, trustworthy relationship and that they have shared interests. Don't know what _you_ two were thinking..."

"Are - are all of your feelings towards each other requited?" Caitlin inquired.

"Yeah, why?"

"She might have said something to herself back in her lab to prove otherwise..."

* * *

 **[Harrison Wells's POV]**

"I'm terribly, terribly sorry for everything you've gone through because of me, Hartley," I said, as the two of us played chess while sipping our drinks, "Everything you've suffered from, both today, and before."

"Not bad, as far as heartfelt apologies go," he muttered, as he moved his knight up, "So... explain something to me, Harrison."

"Hm?" I asked, countering his move with one of my pawns.

"Why am I not in my cell? Why'd you let me out?"

I smiled, and drank my wine. Reassuringly, Hartley followed in my example with his poisoned chardonnay.

"I'm willing to offer you your freedom, on one simple condition..."

"And what would that be?" Hartley retorted, taking one of my bishops.

"Nothing too complicated," I answered, "Simply tell me everything you know about me, and my intentions with the Flash, and I'll let you go."

Hartley studied me warily, slitting his eyes behind his glasses.

"It's not that simple. You're up to something," Hartley deduced, "What are you going to do to me?"

"Hartley, you were like a son to me, and I've done more than enough damage in your life," I apologized, shaking my head sorrowfully, "I don't want to see you suffer anymore, certainly not leave you to rot away in the very Pipeline you helped build. You're welcome to leave, free to go and do whatever you'd like, as long as we finish our game of chess and have one last conversation together."

A small smile appeared on Hartley's lips, and he nodded.

"As far as your plan with the Flash?" he responded, picking up one of his king, studying the piece in his hand, "I was correct, wasn't I? You _let_ the particle accelerator explode. That's what you wanted all along. It's why you purposely ignored my warnings, and you _intentionally_ disregarded my particle orbital interactions. You _needed_ to create the Flash."

"You've always been brilliant," I stated with a nod, before I moved a rook up.

"I have no doubt you're a scientist back in the future as well," he replied, pursing his lips as he moved the king around in his fingers, "It explains why you're such a genius in our time. You have knowledge our world is too primitive for. Quite awe-inspiring, really, Harrison... Yet you're also a speedster. And I can't understand why you'd want to create the Flash, why you'd want to help him so badly, why you'd go to such lengths when _clearly_ you intend to rival him... What is it, that you're using him for?"

I sipped my wine, watched as Hartley placed his bishop forward on our board.

I wouldn't tell him.

I watched as he continued talking.

"Barry... he's a decent guy, I can tell," Hartley murmured, taking another sip, "Even after you destroyed your reputation, brought shame to your lab, you've still got an amazing team. Caitlin's always been dedicated to helping you, and you've always loved Cisco just as much as you loved me. And Artemis... She's an interesting one. I would probably have low-key liked her, if you hadn't kicked me out."

"In the same essence you low-key liked _Cisco_?"

He blushed, tried to hide his smile.

I put my empty glass away and leaned forward.

"Tell me how you figured out Artemis's secret," I ordered politely, "Tell me how you figured out that I've been lying to her about who she really is. That Laurus and Ariadne aren't her real parents."

"Oh, _that?"_ Hartley scoffed, finally finishing off all of the wine - and the poison it came with - and setting his own glass away before he wiped his mouth with his sleeve, "It's simple. It's no different from our little chess game here. See - the king is the most _valuable_ piece. You take down the king, you win. And in the game of chess that you're playing, the Flash is your king. You want to take _him_ down."

I nodded.

"But the most crucial piece in the game? The most powerful one? The queen. _Al-Malika_ herself," Hartley explained, sneering as he moved his queen forward on the board, taking out several of my pieces, "You can play your knights. Your rooks. Your pawns, and your bishops, and the king too. But the _queen_ is your secret weapon. And if I'm correct, you've played your queen. Why, _Laurus and Ariadne?_ Both were geniuses, really, but they're no match for _her_. She's on another level altogether, and I think you know what I'm trying to say..."

I scowled.

"How did you know?" I asked, trying not to seethe at him.

Hartley grinned silently.

 _"Answer_ me," I demanded.

"You unintentionally created a foil in your own plan," he described, smiling coolly, "But you kept it, once you saw the impact your mistake had on the future. Oh, come _on_ \- why _else_ would you try to keep Cisco and Caitlin from trusting her? They'll be heartbroken once they find out who she really is. And _Barry_ -"

Suddenly, Hartley lurched forward in his chair, his hand clutching his heart. He began hyperventilating.

"What - did you _do_ to me?" He panted in a strained voice, looking up at me with newly bloodshot eyes, white liquid beginning to hang from the side of his mouth.

"You knew you shouldn't have trusted me," I mused, crossing my arms as I smiled at him.

The x7 had no doubt contaminated his blood stream by now...

Once it passed through his heart...

"Continue talking. Tell me everything, and I might save you."

"Please. _Help_ me," he whispered, pained tears flowing from his eyes, his body trembling as the poison took over.

I pounded my fist on the table, startling him.

 _"Talk."_

"Ar- Artemis. You- You're going to use her to - to try and you - you wanted her on your-"

His entire body began to shudder violently in painful seizures as his heart began to fail, and he fell forward onto the table, white froth pouring from his mouth all over the chess board.

I sighed and leaned back in my wheelchair.

"Sadly, Hartley, you were right. About everything," I stated grimly, "About the particle accelerator exploding. About me, lying about me identity. About Barry. And even about me, setting you free, and about Artemis too. But I can't have you running off, telling people the truth."

"The - the wine..."

"Yes, the _wine_ ," I laughed, "I ought to have killed you myself, with my hand. But I can't afford to leave evidence behind for your autopsy. And I knew you couldn't resist French chardonnay, Hartley. It's been poisoned. x7. A deadly chemical, discovered in the 23rd century. It's illegal, where I come from. It disrupts _each_ of the biochemical processes in your body, and toxifies your blood stream, killing you almost instantaneously, before it breaks down completely, not leaving a trace. Nobody in this century will be able to figure out what happened to you, when they find you dead in your chamber."

He mewled in pain, his voice dying down as blood and froth spilled from his mouth, each and every vein visible on his body now as they all turned dark blue.

"In chess, we call that a discovered attack," I clarified, moving my queen up and effectively capturing the king, "You won't see it until it's too late."

Hartley's pained whimpers finally ceased.

I removed Hartley's king from the board, capturing it, and winning the game.

I always won the game.

And I always would.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

When the anesthesia wore off, I found that someone, presumably Caitlin, had changed me out of my work clothes into a cozy tee and pajama shorts, and had lain me down on my couch with a soft blanket over my body.

 _God, that headache..._

I groaned as I sat up straight, clutching my heavy, pounding forehead.

"Hey - are you okay?" Barry cajoled sweetly.

I opened my eyes, and saw him sitting by my legs, a worried look on his face.

"Barry," I murmured, "What are you doing here? You should be resting."

"I'm fine. I healed," Barry responded softly, taking my hand in his, "I offered to watch over you."

I mumbled a sleepy protest, and Barry smiled kindly as he carefully pulled me into his arms.

We sat like that in complete silence, but I could tell he wasn't happy. There was an obvious tension between us.

Barry was okay. He was nothing like the bloodied, shaking mess I had found on Fountain Lane earlier tonight.

So why was his expression so serious?

"Barry, what's wrong?" I called out, stroking his cheek.

He exhaled, and I could see distress and worry in his eyes as he looked away.

"I'm sorry - I'm kind of mad at you."

"Mad at me?" I mumbled, confused as I pulled away from him to look him in the face.

"Artemis..." he began, a heated look taking his eyes, "You _shouldn't_ have done what you did today..."

"What exactly are you talking about?" I questioned quietly, suddenly feeling small.

"Leaving the lab? Exposing yourself to Hartley?" he accused softly, a darkness I hadn't seen before falling over his expression, "He could have _killed_ you."

"Barry-"

"No, Artemis," he stressed, his voice hard, "You shouldn't have done that. I can't have you, or Cisco, or Caitlin, or anyone coming into harm's way for me. I thought you'd understand by now, after working on the team for so long. _I_ have powers. _I_ can heal. _I_ do the fighting. _You_ don't. For God's sake, Artemis, don't do anything that impulsive again."

I was about to counter him, because, _really,_ he was being stupid and there wasn't much logic in his words, but then he had his hands cradling my neck and jaw, rested his forehead against mine.

"What would I have done if you got hurt?" He murmured, his voice passionate, his words washing over me with a warmth I hadn't known I needed.

Oh, Barry...

I pushed him away, my unplanned aggression astonishing him as I kept him at arm's length.

"No, you're _wrong_ ," I muttered, my voice a low growl in the back of my throat, "You weren't _there,_ in the Lab. Hartley _let_ himself get captured this morning so he could hack into our computers. He had wanted your molecular frequency the entire time, Barry. He knew which resonance would kill you, Barry. He was going to-"

Barry interrupted me with a hard kiss, lest I say what he didn't want to hear.

My body wanted me to relinquish my arguments.

To fall weakly in his arms, not say another word. To give in, and let him do what he wanted. Let him continue kissing me.

My brain knew better.

He had no right to get mad at me because of my recklessness.

" _Stop,_ " I stuttered, backing away, trying to catch my breath in the face of those needy green eyes.

Barry watched as I swallowed my nervousness, finally giving me his hinged attention.

"Don't you remember what had happened?" I questioned, trying to keep my voice from breaking, "He had shut off our communications systems! We had no way of stopping you from going to him. It was a _trap_ , you fool!"

Barry's bottom lip quivered.

Cursing under my breath, I climbed into his lap, straddling him with my legs folded on either of his.

"Barry, there was nothing any of us could have done in time," I continued, closing the distance between us with a hug, "And I couldn't watch. I couldn't. I couldn't just sit back and watch him kill you. I - I didn't know what I'd do if I had to hear you scream again..."

I could feel his arms wind tightly around my own figure in response.

I gulped, forcing my tears down.

"I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to you, Barry," my voice said, the words pouring out on their own now, "I'm sorry if you didn't like what I did, if you thought I was in danger. But I love you, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

His hands slid away from my back, and were now tracing comforting circles into the skin of my arms.

He was only doing so because I hadn't realized I was shivering.

"Are you okay?" Barry whispered as he pulled me in against his chest, concern revealing itself in his tone, "Do you need anything? You're not well."

"I'm perfectly fine," I answered, refusing to appear weak.

 _God, why was my breathing so shaky all of a sudden?_

 _What was with this headache?!_

"Really?" Barry asked softly, smiling as he tipped my chin up with the joint of his finger, "Because most people don't consider having 11 stitches in their head 'perfectly fine'."

 _Oh._

Before I knew it, the blanket had been wrapped around me, and Barry disappeared, zooming away before he returned with a bottle of medicine and a plate of warm food - both of which he insisted I consume.

Unable to deter him, I groaned and rolled my eyes as he stubbornly persisted on spoon-feeding me, and when we finished, he wrapped his arms around me from behind, pulled me in close to him.

"Anything else I could do?" He sighed, letting me lean my head on his shoulder, his arms around my stomach.

"Stay?" I asked, my voice a nervous squeak.

He gave me a comforting smile as he shifted and lay down on the couch, snuggling me beside him in his arms.

"I think I can do that," he conceded, kissing my forehead.

"Joe won't mind?"

"Please," he said with a cheesy grin, "Iris stays over at Eddie's practically every other day. And Joe likes you way more than he does Eddie, so I would think it's okay..."

"Joe likes me more than Eddie?" I mused, "Huh. Never knew that."

"Well, last I checked, you weren't Joe's partner who happened to also be dating his kid, nor were you sneaking me off to your place in the middle of the night behind Joe's back, nor do you publicly praise Iris's physical features in front of yours' and Joe's mutual friends, so..."

"Eddie's an interesting guy, to say the least..."

Barry chuckled, and the two of us spent the rest of the night talking endlessly right there on the couch, enjoying each other's warmth, dealing innocent kisses and heartfelt hugs, until I began to tire, and yawned.

"Hey, c'mere," Barry crooned, letting me nuzzle up against him.

 _He should stay over more often_ , I thought, closing my eyes and placing my head on his shoulder.

"Oh, shoot," He called, disrupting my wonderful trance, "I can't believe I almost forgot."

He quickly dropped a kiss on my forehead, before ending with a last kiss on my mouth, my lips molding against his as he slotted his lips over mine. He smiled down at me, and comfortably wrapped an arm over my shoulders, my head on his chest.

"Artemis, I love you too."


	19. The Scientist and the Speedster

**Sorry for the maddeningly long hiatus. I promise I haven't forgotten you all, or this story :P**

 **I'm just... busy beyond hope. Thank you all so much for understanding and waiting.**

 **I'll try to make an effort to update on time more often from now on.**

 **At any rate, I'm assuming you've all seen that awkward love scene between Barry and Linda in Season 1, Episode 13?**

 **I present to you - the Artemarry version...**

* * *

As far as a good night's sleep went, sleeping next to a guy in jeans on a tiny leather sofa went _great_.

Even though he had accidentally pushed me off a couple times... Which became pretty annoying the sixth or seventh time around.

Even though he had drooled all over my hair... Which was actually kind of gross.

Even though he snored... Loudly.

Even though he hogged the blanket... All of it.

Even though he kept hitting the back of his arm on my face... Which was painful.

At around 6 am or so, he finally awoke to find me perched on the arm rest at his feet.

"Good morning, Artemis," he mumbled innocently, rubbing sleep out of his eye with the palm of his hand.

"Good morning, Barry," I repeated, unsure if I should be mad or not. I consented on 'not'.

"Did you sleep okay?"

"Yeah, I slept amazingly," he murmured, stretching both arms out, yawning, "You?"

So, at least _one_ of us slept fine, I thought, before my thoughts drifted to his lean, wiry frame, stretched out over the couch as he looked back at me with drowsiness in his eyes.

 _God, he was adorable._

 _And that crazy bed-head..._

How did he manage to look so nice even in the morning, while I usually woke up looking like the wretched lovechild of a witch and a homeless man?

"You did know I have a bed, right? And that most normal people _sleep_ on beds?" I brought up gently, extending my legs over his blanketed ones.

"She's asking rhetorical questions," Barry said under his breath, "That's definitely not a good sign."

I giggled as he slipped his hands up my bare calves, inciting the ticklish skin. I lept off of the couch, walked over to him and leaned down to drop a quick kiss on his temple.

"You have a couple hours before you need to go to work," I explained, brushing my fingers through his rat's nest of dark silky hair. He smiled, enjoying the feeling.

"You should go back to sleep."

"I have the day off, though," he answered, looking up at me with a gaze I couldn't decipher.

"Funny coincidence," I intoned, an absent-minded finger tracing the slight curve of his collarbone, "I was actually planning on skipping work today too."

"Why?" He asked, gently bringing my hand up to his face, lacing slow kisses into my palm.

"Because Dr. Wells is an asshole."

Barry sighed as he pulled me in for a loving hug, squeezing my frame against his taller one, stroking my messy hair.

"What he's saying about you - it's really insensible," he said, planting a kiss on my forehead, "He doesn't know you like I do. Like Caitlin and Cisco do. I'll talk to him."

"You don't need to do that," I answered, "You should enjoy your day off. Singh never goes easy on you..."

I hated making him worry about me. I did not want to be the kind of person to add to the long list of problems a superhero had to solve.

"I promise it's not as bad as it seems, Barry," I assured gently.

He gave me a sad smile. His hands cupped my jaw, and he gave me a heartwarming kiss, his free arm slung over me.

"So what are you going to do today, then?" I murmured, propping myself up on my forearms. I leaned my head down so our foreheads touched.

"Mmm... Well, you're not going to work. I'm not going to work," he whispered, a coy smile appearing on his lips as he rubbed his nose against mine, "I had a few ideas about what we could do together."

At his cue, his hands dropped down my waist, teasing the hem of my shirt, fingertips caressing my skin.

I uselessly tried to fight the tingles swarming my stomach.

"Oh? And are these ideas rated PG, by any chance?" I asked, my hands stopping his.

 _Earth to Artemis?_

 _You might want to stop talking..._

He raised an eyebrow at me.

His arm roped around my back again as he tipped his head forward against my neck, persisting on kissing me.

"Nope," he said, shrugging, before he continued his onslaught of covering my neck with several slow, seductive kisses. I could feel warmth knotting itself in my stomach.

I closed my eyes, tried to focus on my breathing as he tipped my head backwards, supporting the back of my skull in one hand as he proceeded in kissing the skin of my neck, his free hand brushing under my shirt, the touch lingering over sensitive skin.

He was toying with me, I realized.

"Allow me to reiterate," I tried, my voice turning slightly shaky as I pulled away, "Do any of your so-called ideas include letting me _sleep_? Because, you, Mr. _Allen,_ have _zero_ etiquette when it comes to sharing a sleeping space with someone..."

He cringed, and I enjoyed his embarrassment as I continued to harass him, rewarding him with a kiss on his nose.

"For starters, have you ever heard of _sharing?_ Because you literally kept kicking and pushing me off onto the floor, and you wouldn't even split the stupid blanket," I teased in mock scorn, kissing him again as his face flushed, "And - honestly, Barry - you drooled enough to fill an entire _ocean._ Like, I couldn't even-"

And suddenly Barry was tilting my head forward again with gentle hands, getting that perfect angle so he could kiss me in sweet, slow movements.

I forgot whatever the hell it was I had been saying to him only moments before.

I hesitated for only a second, before I closed my eyes, and returned the kiss.

He wrapped his arms around me in an unrelenting hug and twisted us away from the sofa, leaving me well out of breath as he kissed with more force than I was used to.

I hadn't noticed we were moving, until I felt myself deposited onto a soft mattress, and saw that Barry was sitting up beside me by the edge of my bed, in my room.

My heart continued stuttering in my chest, and I nervously looked to Barry, who was rolling up his sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows.

He gave me a small, crooked grin, a silent challenge playing in his green eyes.

"Uhh," I stammered, trying to get my rather demanding heartbeat down to a tolerable level, "What exactly are we... doing?"

My mind was an insensible mess of fatigue, a painful ache where the stitches were and the beginning brandishes of a very prominent lust.

He could very well have been doing _anything_ , and I wouldn't have been the slightest bit concerned.

Of course, he was too decent-minded for his own good.

He smiled innocently as he pulled the comforter up to my stomach.

"Oh? We're not doing anything," he said pointedly, getting off the bed, "You've made it _very_ clear I'm not capable of sleeping with you, and that you require more rest. It's pretty obvious I have no more business here with you, especially at this hour. I should probably leave, maybe go back home..."

I made an involuntary sound that sounded like a sad squeak. He smirked.

"I'll just leave you here, _alone_ , so you can catch up on your sleep in peace. Most _normal_ people sleep on beds, Artemis," he stated, his words creeping under my skin as he patted my shoulder in a very platonic manner, "After all, isn't that what you said to me, earlier?"

I sat straight up, and scowled, muttering a curse at him under my breath.

He smiled at my reaction, a dark grin that befuddled my feelings even further.

"I'm sorry - I didn't quite catch what you said, Artemis," he stated quietly.

"I said 'God help us both'," I growled, hooking my hand in the collar of his shirt as I yanked him forward, seizing him with a passionately intense kiss.

###

I had him shirtless now, had my curious hands caressing his exposed skin as we kissed each other.

He had my head cradled on the pillows, hands pinning me down at my waist, as he softly nuzzled his nose into the curve of my neck, before placing kisses into my collarbones.

It was the ideal moment - slow, sensuous, perfect, alone with Barry - but there was a strange tension in the room.

Something didn't feel right, and I didn't know what it was.

I ignored it, letting myself believe my brain was muzzy with addled nerves, and focused my attention back to him, slotting my mouth over his for more languid kisses.

But there it was.

A slight, tiny vibration in his skin, right underneath my fingers, and in his hands, as they palmed my sides.

"You okay?" Barry asked tenderly, stopping as he noticed my slight discomfort.

"Yeah," I answered, unsure of what to say, definitely _not_ wanting to ruin the moment. I twirled a piece of his auburn hair in my fingers, studying him.

"You?"

Barry gave me a slow, cautious nod and I smiled at him.

The edges of his lips tipped up in a small coy grin, and he enveloped me in his bare arms, kissing me again.

There is was again.

The - the tingle, the _vibration_ , only now it seemed stronger.

Get over it, I chastised myself. And grow a backbone. This is Barry Allen, for crying out loud.

I tipped my chin up, and tightened my hold around his upper torso, and kissed him back fervently, and those vibrations burst out powerfully, raced through me, tingling my mouth, the front of my shoulders, my arms, the partially exposed skin of my chest and any other skin that was in contact with Barry's.

He pulled away almost immediately, and I caught the last of the little racing sensation in his skin, before he removed my hands from his body, surprise all over his face.

"What was that?" I asked, propping myself up. Barry sat up and shrugged, still struggling to catch his breath.

"I - I don't know."

"You felt it, though, right?"

He nodded.

Guess I wasn't imagining things.

"I... So, um, do we continue or...?" I asked, shifting uncomfortably.

He shook his head no, before he plopped down beside me, knitting his fingers through mine.

I extended an arm over and sighed with a small smile as I fluffed his hair.

"We're going to Cisco's for breakfast," he finally mumbled.

"We are?" I asked, surprised by the sudden comment.

Barry nodded as he rose from the bed. I frowned but did the same, collecting his flannel shirt off of the floor and slipping it on over myself.

"Yeah, he told us to come over yesterday, while you were knocked out," he answered, giving me a quizzical glance as I already had pulled out my laptop and work notes onto the bed.

"Go on without me, then," I responded, sifting through the papers as I looked for the calculations I had made only yesterday, "I'll meet up with you guys in a little while."

"Thought you said you weren't going to the Lab today," Barry mumbled as he stood by me, confused as he eyed the papers I had spread out on the mattress.

"I'm not going to the Lab, but there's still something I need to work on..."

Dr. Martin Stein, former professor of applied physics, had been missing since the night of the particle accelerator. Given the fact that he had combined with Ronnie in a fit of dark matter - and whatever was in that cage he was holding - I still had a bit of research to do.

"I thought we were going to spend the day together, though," Barry murmured meekly, wearing a small pout.

"Oh god," I remembered, turning to give him a quick hug, "l'm sorry - I just have something I need to look for. I - it's just physics work - he - the sooner I get it finished, the better..."

Barry knit his eyebrows.

"Is this because I ... Um, are you mad at me for uh, um-"

I widened my eyes as I realized what he thought I was thinking.

"Oh, Barry, no," I answered, guilt settling through me, "No, this has nothing to do with you. I promise things of that nature could never change what I think of you."

He scratched a hand at the back of his head.

"For the record, I'm sorry about that - whatever it was," he mumbled nervously, his face flushing, "I, um, genuinely don't know why it happened."

Awkwardness chilled the air between us.

"You don't need to apologize," I answered, squeezing his hand, "You didn't do anything wrong."

Barry sighed contently and drew his arms around me, planting a kiss at my cheek.

"You're the best, you know that?" He whispered, smiling.

"I'll keep it in mind for future reference," I quipped, gently cupping his jaw before I closed the distance between us for a kiss.

"Am I going to get my shirt back?" He asked, lacing his hands through mine.

"Mmm... kinda doubt it," I confessed.

He rolled his eyes and smiled, quickly dropping one last kiss onto my forehead.

"See you at Cisco's, then?" He requested.

I nodded and he reluctantly let go of my hands before charging out of the room, leaving me with an excited heartbeat, a love-struck smile on my face and papers fluttering to the floor around me.

* * *

 **[Caitlin's POV]**

"Late as _always,_ " Cisco enthused as he flipped an omelette from his kitchen, once Barry arrived.

"Yeah, I... don't actually have a viable excuse," Barry answered, seating himself at the table beside me, "Hey, Caitlin."

"Hey. Is Artemis okay?" I asked, taking a sip of OJ.

"Yeah, she's fine," he responded, looking away with an unreadable look on his face, before he exhaled and faced us all with his usual smile, "She said she had some work to look over before she arrived, so she'll be a little late."

"What kind of work?" I inquired.

"I actually have no idea..." He answered with a shrug.

Cisco arrived, placing two trays heaping with waffles, pancakes, hash browns, muffins and other breakfast items at the center of the table.

"The omelettes'll be out in a sec. And Barry - I get the whole 10,000 calorie diet and the sky-high metabolism and all, but please. I've been cooking since 4 in the morning. Share the food with Caitlin and Artemis," he entreated, before he clasped his hands together and grinned, "And _voila_ , who would've thought I knew how to cook?"

"You didn't actually cook any of these, though," I murmured, recognizing the texture and shape of the food, "These are all prepared and bought from the freezer section at the supermarket..."

"Yeah well, why don't _you_ try making a total of 20 pancakes in one sitting?" Cisco retorted, narrowing his eyes at me as he clasped Barry on the shoulder, "This guy needs somewhere between 2,500 and 3,300 calories for breakfast alone. And one plain pancake has approximately 70 calories in it; Factor in syrup and butter, it'll round up to about 260. And we all know Barry can't live without banana-nut muffins, and those are about 500 calories each, so-"

"Cisco," I interrupted, not wanting _another_ briefing of Barry's dietary regime, "Thank you. I appreciate it."

"I do too," Barry garbled, mouth already full of food as he beamed at his friend.

"I actually am making the omelettes by hand, though, so just sit tight, and let's pray Artemis gets here before her boyfriend devours the entire table," Cisco affirmed with a wink at me. I smiled back at him and helped myself to a few hash browns, and Cisco soon returned with the omelettes, letting the table smell warm and heavenly.

"You really didn't have to do this for us," I alleged, feeling guilty that Cisco had gone to such extreme lengths for us.

"Nah, yesterday was particularly hellish, so I figured we all should get some R&R in," he responded, before he raised an eyebrow at Barry, "So, _loverboy_ , there's an 89% chance you probably stayed at Artemis's place a bit longer than warranted, given everything that happened last night. How'd it go?"

Barry's face flushed and he turned away from Cisco. "What do you mean? How'd what go?"

"Checkmate," Cisco crooned with a smirk, "97% chance."

Barry gave him a strange look and cleared his throat.

"Cisco... I seriously appreciate your support for my relationship, but... please stay within your boundaries."

"And its a 100 now," Cisco teased, winking at me.

"Dude - It _seriously_ wasn't like that-"

"My little Artemarry... They're growing up so fast..."

 _"Bro!"_

I couldn't help chuckling at them, and before we knew it, Artemis entered Cisco's home, casually dressed in an argyle sweater and jeans, with her satchel at her side and her hair down in neat, black locks.

"Artemis!" Cisco exclaimed, running up to her.

She yelped as he surprised her, throwing his arms around her figure in a bear hug. "If you stayed out of our sight for any longer, I _swear_ I was going to nickname you Waldo!"

 _"Waldo?"_ She squealed, as he squeezed her lithe frame one last time before letting go and leading her back to the table.

"Yeah, like 'Where's Waldo?', but with you," Cisco explained, handing her a plate, "Because nobody had any idea where or when you'd show up."

Artemis blinked at him.

"I... was literally just finishing up some stuff at home," she answered, smiling at Cisco before she sat down next to me.

"Caitlin. Wassup," she greeted, giving me her kind grin, "Thanks for the stitches. They're holding up rather nicely."

"Yeah, well, don't expect me to patch you up every time you hurt yourself," I stated, rolling my eyes with a smile. Barry arched an eyebrow at me, refuting my words.

We _all_ knew I wouldn't be able to breathe until I patched her up if this happened again...

Which it hopefully _wouldn't._

"Okay, but for reals," Cisco interrupted, wiping his hands as he too finally sat down, "You totally nailed it last night. We all watched you take down Hartley with that gun you had built, and I was practically blown away. You are mastering the art of snarky comebacks, and man, can I just say? I am proud."

Artemis smiled sheepishly as Cisco began serving her a plate.

"Cisco, it's not that big of a-"

"Don't even _try_ to be humble about it, jeez," he scolded, "The way you calmly just pointed that gun up at him and _hasta la vista'd_ Hartley's sorry little ass, then saved Barry afterwards - god, the feels were sky-high in the Cortex as we watched. If Dr. Wells ever fires you, just go into the film industry and become the next James Bond. You're a natural at it."

Artemis's smile melted right off of her face.

"You think Dr. Wells wants to get rid of me?" She asked softly.

"Woah. No. Bad wording, on my part," Cisco attempted, his tone frantic, "Horr- _horrible_ wording, actually. Dr. Wells - I - he's just - I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that."

The sides of her lips tipped up in a small smile, and she reached over to squeeze his shoulder encouragingly.

"It's fine. I understand," she assured, before she finally acknowledged her plate, _"Waffles?!"_

"Oh my god" Cisco squeaked, overrun with guilt, "Please tell me that was a good 'waffles' and not a 'Cisco I'm deathly allergic to waffles' kind of 'waffles'..."

"Are you serious?" She exclaimed, grabbing her fork "I _love_ waffles. I haven't had them in years!"

"What...exactly... have you been doing with your life that prevented you from enjoying _waffles?_ " Barry asked, subtle bewilderment hidden in his tone.

"Not much, other than completely dedicating myself to learning how to take over the world through applied biochemistry and physics," she replied nonchalantly.

I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

"Cisco, these omelettes taste awesome!" sh blessed, continuing to enjoy her breakfast.

"See, at least _someone_ genuinely appreciates my efforts!" He scolded, turning to Barry and myself accusingly before he faced Artemis again, "Dude. You should seriously come over for breakfast more often. This is what I eat everyday. I eat your food all the time, and I definitely wouldn't mind returning the favor."

"I most certainly _will_ take you up on that offer," she professed, "I don't think I've had breakfast like this since I had last seen the Walkers."

"The Walkers?" I asked, "You mean your foster family?"

"Yeah," she answered calmly, "I haven't really seen them in a few years, so it's been a while since I've had something like this..."

"You haven't seen your adoptive family in years?" Cisco scoffed, "That's... just plain cruel."

Artemis shrugged. "It's their loss, not mine. Every time I've tried looking for them, or reaching out to them, I reach a blank wall. It's like they don't exist anymore."

"And you honestly haven't tried looking into it?" Barry inquired, his voice laced with worry.

"Yeah, wouldn't that make you a bit suspicious about them, if not disheartened?" I added, concerned.

"I already told you - it's their loss, not mine," she finalized, "Lin had told me from the very beginning he'd only stay with me until I got into college. It's not like he surprised me. He was a good father, though, but I just..."

Her voice trailed off, and she scowled sadly, before she spoke again, her tone disregarding.

"I just think I have bigger things to worry about," she concluded, finishing off her food, "Thank you for the amazing breakfast, Cisco. I loved every bite of it."

He smiled at her, and we all watched as she gathered her cleaned plate and took it back to the sink before leaving to go to the other room, where we would be out of earshot.

Barry immediately leaned forward.

"Don't you all think it's a bit strange?" He whispered, urgently, "Her parents get murdered mysteriously by a metahuman, then her foster parents disappear off the face of the globe?"

"Okay, they can't have _disappeared_ disappeared?" Cisco responded matter-of-factly, "Maybe they just moved away, without telling her?"

"Who would do that, though?" I countered, "She's not the kind of kid you'd want to abandon, though. She'd make anyone proud. What kind of parents would cut off all contact from her?"

"I've seen some pretty wild cases," Barry described, his tone hushed, "Both criminal and metahuman. Lin Walker's disappearance... probably clears out most of them. When she told me about them a few weeks ago, she was pretty dismissive about it, but I ran his name through the police records. His law firm closed down 3 years ago. There's no known whereabouts regarding where he went. Him, his wife, and their son - _nobody's_ seen them since June, 2012."

"Well, _shit,_ " Cisco disdained, "That's... not normal."

"Let's ask Felicity to look it over? If anyone can find people on the lay-low, it's her and Oliver..." I suggested.

Barry and Cisco fell quiet, grim expressions shining in their eyes.

"Guys? I hate to say this, but..." Cisco brought up, "Okay - I _really_ hate to say this. She's like a sister to me, and I love her to death, but do you think Dr. Wells could be right about what he said? That there _are_ some things about Artemis we don't know? Why would Lin Walker just... disappear?"

"Don't be ridiculous," Barry scolded instinctively, his voice barely a whisper. He looked over to her, fishing out papers from her satchel in the distant living room, "It's not like she knows what happened to them _either._ She's not _hiding_ anything."

"And how would you know that?" I found myself murmuring involuntarily.

The offended look in Barry's eyes made me wish I hadn't said anything.

"Think about it... A woman claiming to have lost her parents the same way you did comes up to you, demands to take the Flash down, discovers a dangerous subatomic particle and harnesses its powers to create weapons, then _dates_ the man she wanted to take down only weeks before?" Cisco whispered reluctantly, "I kind of see where Dr. Wells is coming from, even if I don't agree with him..."

"The fact that her and Dr. Wells don't really get along only makes her a bit more suspicious, Barry," I added, awkwardly wringing my hands.

He leaned back in his chair, a dark scowl falling across his face.

"You might not want to want to believe us, and we don't want to believe it either, but the facts... are facts..." Cisco maintained quietly.

"What was that last night, then?" Barry scoffed angrily, "She could've _died_ when she came to save me, and you guys are over here accusing her of working against us? We don't even have any proof-"

"You said so yourself that it cleared out most of your wilder cases, though..."

"I was talking about the _Walkers'_ disappearance, _not_ about Artemis, Caitlin" he responded, his jaw clenched, "Look - the last thing we need is making an enemy out of an ally. And it's insane - _look_ at her. She's so loyal to all of us, and has done so much at the lab since she's joined, even after all of the garbage Wells put her through."

It was true.

Artemis was young. Artemis was innocent. Artemis was sweet. Artemis was close to all of us, and loved us all.

Ironically, it was the perfect alibi.

"You need to remember Wells's intentions, though. He only did so because he thought she could be a threat," Cisco murmured, "And he still thinks so. And he's just trying to look out for us..."

"Barry, she wants to figure out how to take away the metahuman gene," I stated, _"You're_ a metahuman. That doesn't alarm you?"

Barry frowned at me, and angrily rose from the table, pushing his chair in.

"No. It doesn't," he replied, his glare unforgiving, "This is stupid. She adores you _both,_ and you're accusing her of conniving us. You don't deserve her friendship."

"Barry - Hartley asked her to take a DNA test," Cisco tried one last time, "He said the Van Kleisses weren't even her real parents..."

Barry exhaled quickly, and turned back to us, putting his hands on the dinner table as he glared at Cisco.

"And you believed him... You believed the jerk who tried to kill you, and purposely hid intel on Ronnie? The jerk who used explosive hearing aides in order to escape? You'd rather believe the man who always hid his true intentions under lies and jealousy, and did anything to get what he wanted, even if that included _hurting_ people, Cisco?"

Cisco didn't answer, and Barry pinched the skin between his eyes.

"There's plenty of evidence against her, I get that," he said, his voice strained, "But look at things from her point of view. There is all the evidence in the world supporting the fact that speedsters actually killed her parents. Joe visited the crime scene back at her home. The proof was there. The Reverse Flash came after her. _Twice_. Yeah, Artemis wanted to take _me_ down at first, because she thought I was working with him, but Dr. _Wells_ wouldn't let us tell her it was me. How else should she have reacted, given her circumstances? It only makes sense for her to act that way. And she _has_ been willing to put herself in the face of danger for us multiple times. _Don't_ forget that."

Cisco and I had no answers for him.

He was right.

But Dr. Wells had an equally convincing side of the story.

I found myself unable to understand how to react. But - but Artemis was a good person. She loved us.

What ulterior motives could she have?

"Hey guys?" she chirped cautiously, waving a collection of papers through the air as she entered the dining room, finding us all quiet, "Everything okay? You've all been kinda quiet since I left. Don't tell me you're still mourning my doltish stepdad ditching me-"

Artemis was interrupted by Barry impulsively reeling her in for a quick, hard kiss - right in front of us.

"You're a good person," he stated, after letting go of her, "I know you are."

"Um," she stuttered, pushing her glasses up as she looked up at him with a dumbfounded expression, blushing deeply, "Thanks? You too?"

She faced us, and attempted a smile.

"Everything alright? You both look frightened," she inquired gently, "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing," I replied, trying to maintain my cool.

"Yeah, we just weren't expecting that little PDA," Cisco treated, faking a smile, "Don't make me lose my breakfast, you two."

Artemis rolled her eyes at him.

"Don't act like you didn't like it," she chided, "You literally _beg_ for more and more open romance between us."

"Weren't you the one who was shipping us from the moment we met?" Barry accused, his voice gentle as he put his arm over Artemis's shoulder.

"Yeah, he was," she answered, pinching Cisco's cheek, "Barry - he's planning our wedding, and he's making it Star Wars themed."

Barry raised both eyebrows in puzzlement.

"What?" Cisco protested, ashamed, "Okay, I am _not-_ "

"You left your Pinterest open on the Cortex computers," she intoned, making a sound between a snort and a laugh, "Dr. Wells saw it too."

Cisco made an embarrassed mewling sound in response and blushed.

I turned to Artemis.

"What have you got there?" I questioned, gesturing towards the papers she had brought.

She smiled knowingly, and laid the papers out on the table for us.

"Martin Stein. He's a physicist who was there at STAR Labs when the particle accelerator went off," she explained, "He had some kind of strange matter in his hands when it blew up. That matter is the key to me transmutating Ronnie apart from him. I need to find out what it is."

We watched as she pulled out a document that looked like a resume, Barry's arm not moving from her waist.

"I did some stalking and found this online. Dr. Stein is a former adjunct professor at Hudson University, and a head researcher at Concordance Labs, both out in Keystone. His only family is his wife, Clarissa, who lives down in Lawrence Hills," she stated, showing us proof of what she said, "He was working on something called Project Firestorm, and seeing the abilities you've all said Ronnie possesses, it's pretty clear that this project might be responsible for his condition. Sadly, though, I can't find any other information, and I've been hunting for days. Caitlin, I was hoping you'd come with me to to Concordance Labs? To investigate? This is personal to you, after all."

Artemis looked at me with a hopeful look in her eyes, and Barry with a pointed one.

He was right.

Artemis was trying to help us. She was going out of her way to help me find Ronnie.

She did care for us, and it was a genuine kind of care.

"I'd love to," I answered, getting up from my chair, "I'll let Dr. Wells know I won't be coming in this morning."

"Could you call in for me, too, then?" She asked, "I'm not in the mood to talk to him, after what he said yesterday."

 _Why? Because what he said might be true?_ I found my conscience asking _._

"Maybe I _should_ talk to him," Barry answered, "He's-"

"Barry, I can handle myself," she promised, lacing her free hand through his, "Whatever Dr. Wells's beef with me is - I'll work it out."

 _Was there another reason why she wouldn't want Barry to worry? To pry?_

 _Stop,_ I chastised myself. _Why_ was I being so distrustful?!

"Well, screw this, then," Cisco announced, rising from his seat, "If none of you are going to work, then I'm not going too. I don't want to be stuck at the Lab with Wells, after how I spoke to him yesterday..."

Cisco had been vehemently arguing against Artemis manipulating us. He adored her, and they had a close friendship.

I got the feeling Cisco was on Barry's side with this.

I'd better stop with my doubts as well, then.

"Do you want us to come with you?" Barry asked Artemis.

"Allen, you're always really busy, and this is an easy mission," she assured, putting her hand at his forearm, "Caitlin and I will be able to handle it. Just relax for once. The CCPD never goes easy on you."

"Really?" He pressed, scratching his hair, "Because it's literally not a problem with me if-"

"Barry. You barely get any time to yourself," Artemis interrupted, sighing with a kind smile.

She planted a peck at his cheek. "You're either endlessly writing reports for Singh, scooping up pieces of dirt out of crime scenes, running around saving lives, or you're taking me out. Take a breather. You deserve it."

Barry gawked at his girlfriend, pouting as she continued to pack her notes up.

"And Ramon - same goes for you," she continued without making eye contact, "You've both been hassling away far more than you can handle."

"We'll call you if anything happens," I assured, putting my arm over Artemis's thin shoulders, "But Artemis is right. You both should enjoy the day off."

"Oh, okay, so while you two are off playing Mission Impossible, what do we do, play video games?" Cisco mocked, crossing his arms.

"Yes, actually," Artemis replied casually as she slipped the last of her notes into her bag.

Cisco and Barry both gave her skeptical looks, before they looked to each other and shrugged, finally giving in.

"Well, if you guys ever get caught in the crossfires of a shoot-out up in Keystone, I'm only a speed dial away," Barry assured.

"Thank you, Barry," I answered with a gracious smile.

Artemis pushed her glasses up, and turned to me with a grin.

"Ready to go find out how to get your fiancé back?" she asked.

I smiled at her.

"Absolutely," and we both turned to leave, before Artemis facepalmed herself.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" She exclaimed, and she walked back to Barry and Cisco.

"In case there's a metahuman strike, and Caitlin and I aren't back in time for an operation, the paralyzing gun is in the black case in the locker in my lab. I want for you guys to be able to use it in case you're in trouble," Artemis delineated, handing them her Lab keys, "The combination to the locker is 09 08 19 90."

"09 08 19 90?" Barry teased, as both he and Cisco smiled knowingly at her, "You mean the 8th of September, 1990?"

Cisco grinned. "Where on earth did you come up with _those_ numbers, Artemis?" he remarked, winking at Barry.

"Don't let it get to your head," she murmured, trying not to blush.

"Well, thanks for the assistance," Cisco answered, putting the keys in his pockets.

"But, guys, whatever you do," Artemis warned, "Do not turn on the electron matter projectors. It's not safe for Barry to be in the presence of the hyper electron."

Barry paled, and peeled his eyes away from Artemis, to an equally appaled Cisco.

"Um, an explanation would be nice, Van Kleiss," the latter allowed.

Artemis wore a grim expression as she pulled out another file from her satchel. She opened the file up to a page where she had drawn a diagram of a molecule shaped like a sideways lowercase Y.

"The electron matter I showed you and Caitlin yesterday?" She began, her tone serious, "You can't go anywhere near it, Barry. You know I've been trying to rip the metahuman gene out of an entire genome. Obviously, the fact that I'm _dating_ a metahuman poses a few safety concerns. The nuclear form of the electron matter - it doesn't pose a threat to humans, but metahumans? Speedsters such as yourself?"

She pointed to the picture of the molecule. We all crowded around her to see what she was saying.

"I ran tests on your blood samples. Nothing too extreme, but get this. Human bodies are designed to strive for homeostasis. Biochemical _balance_ , in other words. It's how we stay alive, and it's the goal that our systems naturally work to achieve. _This_ is the molecular structure in your DNA that gives you your speed. The weird thing about it? Because of it's presence in your body, your systems _don't_ strive for homeostasis. This - this _speed gene_ works to maintain an overall positive charge, and it's the reason why you can do things that would otherwise kill you," she described, "After the particle accelerator's dark matter hit you, it physically redefined your body so you could handle more extreme limits by _giving_ you that extra charge."

The men blinked in bewilderment.

"You studied your boyfriend's blood?" Cisco muttered, "That doesn't sound creepy at all..."

Artemis threw him a stern look.

"It's not like we're a normal lab, Cisco," Artemis scorned, "In its raw form, the hyper electron is dangerous to metahumans. It's radioactive matter that has an _infinitely_ negative charge. I wanted to make _sure_ Barry would be safe before exposing him to it."

Cisco threw me a look of warning.

I understood what he was trying to tell me.

What if Artemis had studied his blood for malevolent reasons?

Was she a threat to Barry?

"Wait," I realized, "If Barry's blood has an overall positive charge, and the hyper electron is negative-"

"What happens when you have two objects with repelling charges within proximity of each other?" Artemis asked rhetorically.

"Magnetic attraction," Barry murmured.

"But Artemis, physiologically speaking, that means-" I brought up.

"It means the hyper-electron's energy will naturally absorb the speed gene right from your system," Artemis finalized, facing Barry, "And I don't know what could happen to _you_ if that happens. So stay _out."_

###

Artemis and I got into my car. She searched something up on her phone while I buckled up beside her, and readjusted my mirrors.

I felt nervous around her, all of a sudden.

I didn't know why, but alarm bells were going off in my head.

She turned to me with a kind smile.

"Our first stop would be Concordance Labs, in Keystone. We're going to need to find and talk to a certain Quentin Quale. He went to college with Dr. Stein, and they've been working together for over 30 years since then. I think he's going to be a good resource for us."

"Mhmm," I answered, starting the car.

Her smile faltered as she watched my lack of emotion.

"I - Caitlin, everything alright?" She questioned politely, "You should be happy. We - we're _close_. We're on the right track. I can feel it."

I took a deep breath and looked at her. She had a true determination in her dark eyes, her black hair neatly swept back.

She was nothing but kind. There couldn't have been anything wrong with her.

A part of me wanted to swoon with joy, let myself be overcome with happiness - Artemis would give me back my Ronnie.

But another side of me still doubted her, wanted to study her under a microscope, figure out her true intentions. What if she actually meant ill to Barry, and we were letting ourselves be fooled by her? Why was Dr. Wells so fixed upon outcasting her? Surely he had his reasons?

Who _was_ Artemis, and what did she want from us?

"I'm fine, Artemis," I finally answered, my voice cracking.

Her smile returned, and she held her open hand out. I placed mine in hers, and she squeezed reassuringly.

"Good. Let's go get your love life back."

* * *

 **[Dr. Wells's POV]**

I couldn't stop laughing.

This was too good to be true - Caitlin was finally beginning to turn against Artemis.

True, her suspicions were nothing more than messy misplaced doubts right now, and Barry and Cisco would require some extra work, but it was a budding start. The early seedlings of hatred. I would continue to water their fears, Artemis would act innocently and ironically rile them up further, and poor Barry would be heartbroken and confused - and in a few months, my plan would work.

But as for today, I had other ideas.

I wanted to see the energy from the hyper electron.

The tachyon device wasn't helping much, especially at its slow, limited pace.

But there was an inherent, almost _physical_ attraction between myself and the hyper electron, one I would go mad for.

I needed it.

Lucky for me, Artemis and Caitlin left for a little trip, and Gideon's surveillance systems showed Cisco and Barry getting ready for a video game marathon.

And there hadn't been any signs of criminal activity this morning, so hopefully no need for an operation.

I'd have the lab to myself, completely undisturbed, and a good night's rest, along with hours of recharge, had allowed me enough speed to last until noon or so. That was more than enough time for me to take a quick look.

I darted into my superspeed, felt the amazing rush of wind beating over me, the energetic burn in my legs and abdomen as I kicked myself forward, careening in between still-standing cars and past roads, my red lightning barely visible as I forced myself faster.

I skidded to a glorious stop, and found that I had successfully phased through the walls of STAR Labs, and had ended up right where I needed to be - Chemistry Lab #12.

Artemis's work space.

I walked over to her desk, adorned with picture frames depicting her family and friends, a neat pile of papers and notebooks, a coffee mug, a cup containing pens and a lonely artificial rose, and of course - her desktop computer, from where she had run the program that controlled the electron matter.

I started the system, and tried my hand at as many passwords as I could think of before the program clicked, allowing me full access, and I found myself with full access to a program that Artemis had no doubt created herself.

I keyed in my desired commands, and heard a powerful whirring behind me, great torrents of energy beginning to hum, warming the air.

The cloud of electrons had been reborn, successfully crackling with its raw power as it grew above me in the air.

I smiled.

I finally had what I wanted.

That power was so _tempting_ \- the waves of refreshing warmth pouring over me, the charged air bristling through my hair.

I couldn't resist any longer.

Victoriously grinning, I stepped forward, climbing onto the tabled platform.

I stood up tall and reached my hand up, the air burning my fingers with fresh radiation.

My skin tingled with adrenaline, and I couldn't believe that this was _actually_ happening. That I actually had this _pure_ , unrestrained power _all_ to myself.

This _had_ to be the most powerful moment I'd ever felt _._

"Eobard Thawne?"

My heart skipped two beats. I turned around, horror washing over me.

A tall figure was standing at Artemis's desk, with his back to me as he worked at the computer.

A man, dressed in a black jacket with the hood drawn over his head, quietly typing into the program.

"Who are you?" I stuttered, heart thudding madly, "H-how did you get in here?!"

He continued silently working away at the computer.

"How do you know my name?!" I demanded, fear quivering my voice.

Almost immediately, the cloud of electrons above me dissipated into the air, disappearing completely.

This newcomer knew my name.

He had silently entered the locked lab, which nobody had access to without keys or the ability to phase.

The fact that he had turned off the electron matter before I could have any to myself successfully only fueled my fear.

 _"Answer_ me!" I yelled, my voice rising with intense panic.

The man looked over his shoulder as he powered off the computer, and I shuddered.

He was tall, with pale skin and unruly black hair.

Not a man, I thought, seeing the juvenile handsomeness in his features, the wistfulness in his scowl. The resolute determination in his eyes.

He was a _kid._ Barely 17 or 18 years old.

How did a _child_ enter this lab?

 _Metahuman_. Definitely metahuman.

The warmth returned to my blood, and my heart beat relaxed. I could handle a metahuman on my own.

But... metahuman or not, how did he know who I was?

 _It didn't matter. Kill him. Now._

He lowered the hood of the jacket, and I widened my eyes in horror.

A huge, freshly pink zig-zagged scar ran from his forehead to his cheek, cutting entirely through his left eye, leaving the socket small and swollen.

The other eye was perfectly fine, and he keenly observed me through it.

"I just saved your life. That stuff would've burned the speed gene right out of you. You'd be stuck in this century forever, and trust me, _nobody_ wants you here," he finally answered, in a cool, crisp voice, "Who am I? Well, I guess you could call me a fan of yours..."

"A - a fan?" I stammered, getting down from the platform, "How - how did you find me here? Who are you? What's your name?"

The teen gave a sly smile - which only looked terrifying with that scarred eye of his - and crossed his arms as he leaned against Artemis's desk.

"The name's Jolt."

 _"Jolt?"_ I sputtered, "Who - who names their child Jolt?!"

"Wow, you're in some state today," he scoffed, easily striding right past me, "My _nickname's_ the Jolt. The same way Barry Allen's nickname is the Flash. Jesus."

He knew Barry was the Flash?

He - he knew I was Eobard Thawne. That I wasn't from this century.

How?

 _Who_ was he?

"What's - what's your real name, then?"

The boy returned and handed me a plastic cup of water.

"My real name? It's one that'll definitely give you nightmares. Not gonna tell you."

"So... why Jolt, then?" I asked hesitantly, before I drank the water.

The cool wetness calmed down my nerves.

But not entirely.

He taunted me with a smile and crossed his arms again.

"How did you get here?" I asked desperately.

The boy's lips curled into that blood-curling grin again, and began humming _Pop Goes the Weasel_ as he slowly walked around the lab room, gauging Artemis's lab setup.

 _Kill him._

 _He's just a fool..._

A fool? He knows your real name. He knows you're a speedster, and said he was a 'fan'... He turned off the electron matter, and saved you from sudden death. He got into Artemis's lab, which, again, _wasn't_ possible without keys, or a speedster's ability to phase...

He wasn't any average metahuman.

He was either an friendly ally...or a very-well informed enemy.

 _My nickname's the Jolt. The same way Barry Allen's nickname is the Flash._

He kept humming that dastard song, and my heart skipped a beat as I heard a sudden faraway screech, growing louder and louder.

Growing closer and closer, I corrected, fresh sweat beading on my skin from the realization.

I _recognized_ those strange, shrill screams...

A dark, ghostly skeleton floated out from behind us through the back wall, violently knocking over a fume hood and a shelf of chemicals, snarling demonically as it extended its arms, long, dirty talons at the ends of its fingers.

"You - you summoned a time wraith!" I shouted, getting as far away from the hellish creature as I could, "You time-traveled back here!"

He wasn't from this time period. _That's_ how he knew all of this.

Jolt's eyes glinted dangerously as he flashed his cruel smile at the wraith.

"Well, it's about _time_ you showed up, Charlie!" He shouted, breaking into a brisk, happy walk around the lab, the wraith howling as it began to careen after him.

"You _named_ your time wraith Charlie?!"

"Oh, for _sure_. This guy follows me around everywhere!" He sang, "We're practically married!"

Was that sarcasm?

"I'm - I'm pretty sure a demon following you around isn't the same thing as having a spouse," I called out nervously, watching the wraith scream as it chased the boy.

"What - you've never watched _Desperate Housewives_?" He joked, "I've heard its pretty popular among women such as yourself in this century..."

He began singing _Pop Goes the Wease_ l out loud as his walk broke into a lively jog - a _skip._

The wraith dove for him, but surprisingly crashed into the floor as the boy swerved confidently out of reach.

He was tantalizing the monster, I realized, and he soon picked up his pace, running at a jog which soon broke into a strong sprint.

The wraith cried out in frustration as it tried to follow after him...

 _What?_

 _Nobody could avoid a wraith!_

The boy laughed coldly in the middle of his lyrics.

Within seconds, though, I felt the air begin to charge, begin to _rush_ around the lab, following directly behind the boy, battering the air.

The inertia nearly tore the air from my lungs, forcing me to hold on if I didn't want to be swept away. The boy charged around faster, and my jaw dropped as I watched a wave of electricity shoot over him, before it strung behind him. He began to run at super speeds, his lightning a heroic gold at first, before he pushed faster and faster, turning the lightning brighter until it became white. He continued forcing himself faster, until finally - his lightning became terrifyingly blue, sparking violently over him.

Blue lightning.

Time travel.

Super speed.

He knew me, and Barry.

He was a speedster.

A _deadly_ one.

The wheel of lightning tornadoed around the lab, wind barreling chaotically behind him and destroying the lab in its wake. The wraith cried frantically as it failed in its attempt to coordinate after him. The boy kept singing _Pop goes the Weasel_ and laughing as he tantalized the monster, running _far_ too fast for the creature to catch him.

 _Impossible,_ I gulped, _There's no way anyone can avoid a wraith like so._

"All around the physicist's bench, the time wraith chased the speedster, the speedster pulled out his sonic watch-" I was barely able to watch Jolt turn and begin running backwards, lifting his wrist towards the howling demon, " _Dead!_ Went the time wraith!"

The boy shot a series of white-energy blasts from his watch at the time wraith, which immediately perished with beastly squeals and vanished in dusty fireworks as he stopped dashing around the room, slowing until his momentum diminished.

I gawked.

"So, you're a speedster-" I slowly managed.

"Wow. And I thought Joe _West_ was the detective of the city..." he jibed, sweeping a bit of hair away from his scarred eye, other hand at his side.

"So what'd you think?"

"I've... heard better singing..." I murmured, sweat washing over me.

The lab was a mess.

Debris was everywhere, the unwanted aftermath of the boy's careless running.

He flared his nose in an amused smile, and looked to his wrist as he fiddled with his watch, stepping over a broken projector towards me.

"Which era are you from?" I choked, as he approached, "What do you want from me? How'd you stop that wraith? How - how'd you get that _scar?"_

He was definitely more powerful than I was. He had mastered impossible feats. I had every reason to fear him.

He let out a dry chuckle, avoiding eye contact.

"Eobard, let's take it easy," he chided softly, "One question at a time. Which era am I from? Well, I have time remnants in _every_ period of time. I don't really have a specific 'era' anymore."

"Time remnants all over the place?" I inquired curiously, nervously walking towards him, "That's... that's genius. It makes it _impossible_ to kill you permanently."

"It also makes me immortal," he mused, his good eye glinting with dark amusement.

My blood froze in its veins.

 _Immortality?_

"As for the scar?" He brought up kindly, "Why, don't you remember? You gave it to me, _Thawne_. It was literally moments ago."

I tensed.

So I did know him.

My mind ran with names.

 _Barry._ _Wally._ _Don._ _Bart._ _Jessie._ _Eliza._ _Hunter._

"Or, wait - I time traveled back here. You wouldn't remember giving me this scar _now,_ would you?"

 _Jay. Daisy. Petro Maximoff. Johnny. Savitar. Max Mercury._

Those were the only speedsters I knew.

Who was he?

What enmity did I have with him?!

Jolt - why couldn't I remember that name?!

"I've - I'm sorry. I don't remember you."

The boy raised an eyebrow at me, and sighed as he walked away, towards Artemis's desk.

"You know who I am. Don't play dumb," he chastised, picking up one of the picture frames off the floor before setting it onto the desk.

I suddenly noticed the eerie resemblance.

The gaunt, lithe frame, at least 6 feet tall.

The skin color.

The handsome features.

The wavy hair, alluringly swept to one side, though it much darker, almost black, in color.

"Are you - are you a member of the Allen family?"

The nose, slightly crooked at the bridge, the relaxed curve of that smile.

He _had_ to be a descendant of Barry... The physical similarities were uncanny.

But - but Barry's descendants were noticeably bi-racial. He'd marry Iris, after all...

The teen shrugged carelessly.

"I don't really have _any_ family..."

"Oh?"

"You took them away from me, you bastard."

I had probably tortured this boy, then, probably ripped his family away from him.

But who was he?!

What did I want from him? His speed? His power? His lightn-

His lightning...

"Your lightning. It's blue... Are you dying?"

The boy laughed - a sarcastic, cruel sound - and in the span of a heartbeat, he aggressively pinned me by my throat, my skull hitting painfully against the wall.

All air was knocked from my lungs.

His eyes flickered madly with violent cobalt sparks, and I found myself shaking under his fist with unbridled fear.

 ** _"Tell me,"_** he asked, modifying his voice so it was monstrous and low pitched, but at the same time - _still_ casual and cool.

He tightened his stony grip on my neck, smirking dangerously, _**"Do I look like I'm dying?**_

* * *

 _Air. I needed air,_ I thought desperately.

 ** _"You know there's more than one way to have speed like mine. You don't need to use an enhancing drug, and you don't need to get hit by dark matter or electrified chemicals,"_** he seethed, wearing a cool smirk as his eyes flickered with fulmination, _**"Come on. You call yourself the smartest speedster alive. You should know this."**_

How did one have such... heightened power, _without_ the use of serums? Be able to run at impossibly fast speeds - _blue lightning_ \- without burning themselves up?

A chill settled through my panic as I realized I knew the answer.

My enemy was of a unique and rare biological race...

"You - one of your parents was a speedster," I choked, my voice almost inaudible, "You were born into the Speed Force."

 ** _"Ex_ _c_ _el_** lent," he answered, changing his voice back as he dropped me, letting me fall to the floor, "So you're not as stupid as I thought. But you're correct. The metahuman gene can be inherited, if one or both biological parents are metahumans. My father just so happened to be a speedster."

I gasped for precious air as he paced around the lab, laughing to himself.

"You? Barry? Wally, and some of the other speedsters? You _adopted_ the speed force with the lightning reaction, artificially took on its power, albeit in _very_ strong ways. But myself? And Bart? The Tornado Twins? We were _born_ with the speed force. And as we grew stronger, our abilities grew stronger as well. We're _invincible_. You're powerful, Thawne. You've throttled against Barry your entire life, but even you're no match for one of _us_."

My heart beat stuttered.

I knew there was a race of 'natural' speedsters. Barry's children would be born with his abilities, as would his grandson, Bart.

But, as far as I knew, he was the only speedster to have children.

I had children as well, but that was before I gained my speed. My two children, back in the 25th century, were _human._

But - but there _had_ been a third child. But I had... practically done away with her, so to speak. I had total control over her fate.

Nobody could have known that.

"If - if you inherited the speed force genetically, then who did you inherit it from?" I asked, forcing myself to calm down, "Who were your parents?"

His smile faltered, and he turned to me.

"You've asked enough questions. Honestly, like, it's giving me a headache," he muttered, picking up one of Artemis's picture frames from the wreckage beholding her desk.

Even at a distance, I could see it was the photo of her and Barry, dressed in a floor-length gown and a suit, respectively, from the time they went to the CCPD's Annual Summer Charity Gala.

"This is a gorgeous picture," Jolt remarked, an admiring smile taking his face.

I swallowed, tried to control the shaking in my fingers.

 _He couldn't know the truth about her._

"Can we stop and take a second to appreciate these two?" He asked, still studying the photo, "Why, Barry Allen is and always _will_ be revered as the greatest speedster in history. He's the true epitome of heroism, and his desire to help others - that innate goodness in him? - it will _always_ be remembered. Some would say he's a god. A legend. There will never be another like him."

He studied me with a sharpness in his eyes.

"You know that already. That's why you became a speedster - why you recreated the reaction. You're jealous of Barry, because history will never see you two in the same light. No matter how smart you are or how fast you claim to go, there will _always_ be a certain darkness about you. One that will never go away. You're an envious son of a bitch, and you can never live up to Barry's legacy. _That's_ why you fear him, why you rival him. You truly are his reverse."

I tensed, and curled my fingers into a fist, scowling.

" _Artemis_ , though?" He intoned, giving a small grin as he walked over to me, crouching on one knee, "She's not your reverse at all... No, she has too much in common with you to be different from you...Some would say she's your blood kin."

Sweat beaded on my temples.

"Shut up," I grumbled uselessly, "I have nothing in common with her. You've gone mad."

He snickered.

"Don't try to hide it. You hate her, because you're responsible for her very existence. Because you created not one, but two rivals. And Artemis knows how to get what she wants, without fail. It's why she stands up to you, and it's why you try to turn her away from Cisco, Barry and Caitlin. You don't want them to know what she's truly capable of. What kind of carnage she can wreak. Your little empire is falling, Thawne."

I flicked my wrists, letting my hands vibrate at dangerous super speeds, and lunged for him, as he had his back turned to me.

He quickly turned and powerfully knocked me to the floor with a strong hand, and continued his little lecture, as if nothing had happened.

"You want Caitlin and Cisco to believe she's dangerous - because you don't want her on their side," he noted, facing me with a smile as he turned the piece of glass over in his hands, "You'd never be able to live that down, now would you? After all, she is _your_ daughter, isn't she?"

"That's enough," I threatened, flicking my wrist again so my hand vibrated. I burst into my speed, and charged straight for him again, when he disappeared in a fit of ominous static.

I spun around, trying to look for him in panic, before my right arm was immediately twisted at a bizarre angle, the ripped tendons firing up my nerves in excruciating pain.

" _Admit_ it," he ordered, pulling me in and twisting harder.

I howled in unspeakable torment. I was more than certain my shoulder blade had been broken.

"Don't be shy," he cajoled, not letting go of my arm, "Use your words. Or I'll rip your arm off clean. You know even a speedster's ability to heal can't regenerate limbs, right? Dare to risk it?"

I felt what must have been a chainsaw, cutting into the fabric of my shoulder, ripping the outer skin to shreds in a solid line.

I gasped in pain.

Was this what it felt like, to have a vibrating hand against you?

Such intense, unspeakable, _burning_ pain?

"Are you going to talk?"

I mewled in fear. "Let me go. Please."

"Tell me. You've hidden this secret for centuries. I want to hear you confess it yourself. _Tell_ me she's your daughter. And that you're using her to take down Barry."

"I – I can't-"

"Pathetic," he muttered, jabbing his hand in deeper into my shoulder. I shouted in pain, burning tears singeing my eyes.

"You're not as good with your secrets as you think, Eobard," he continued, shoving his hand deeper into the joint of my shoulder, "In a matter of months, everyone will know about her. And about the Van Kleisses. And, _boy_ , won't _that_ make everyone happy."

"Stop. Please," I pleaded, the pain intensifying in my shoulder, spreading into my back and arm. I began seeing colors. He twisted harder, cut his hand right down to the bone.

"Let me go. Please. I'll tell you," I gasped, panting in fear, "I'll tell you everything. I promise."

To our left, a damaged shelf crashed onto the floor.

It must have been wired with an emergency alert program, or safety sensors, because it sent the Lab's alarms off, signifying a break-in.

 _Clang! Clang! Clang!_

"What's going on?" Jolt muttered behind me, looking up at the blaring red lights beaming through the room.

"You - you set off the alarm systems," I answered, my voice strained. He quickly released me in panicked surprise.

"Barry's going to be here any second," I continued, struggling to find my voice. My left hand grabbed my bloodied, mangled mess of a shoulder.

"It's the Lab's metahuman alert."

He scowled, and shot forward at superspeed, jumping into the time portal that had automatically opened up because of his abilities, leaving me helpless on the floor.

The portal sealed shut, bidding him a safe departure from the 21st century.

Gone.

Just like that.

Easy for him, I scorned. He was a juvenile time-traveling speedster, who had made a mess of the lab and disappeared, leaving me with a gory shoulder, right where Barry and Cisco would find me.

The lab was destroyed.

My blood painted the floor.

And I would look like the culprit.

 _How would I explain myself?_

I couldn't escape - not in the position I was in.

I didn't even have my wheelchair.

God, what would I do?! What would I say?!

I struggled to get up - when another time portal tore through the space in front of me, and the boy returned, dressed in a metallic speedster - dark blue and silver instead of Barry's red and gold, but with the same gold lightning emblem at his chest - and a teenaged girl with pink hair, in faded pajamas, in his arms.

"Priscilla - _hey_ ," he began, setting her down as he held up pink fabric, "I need a favor."

She looked around the destroyed room in shock.

"Henry - where are we?" she stammered in annoyance.

"Central City, early 21st," he answered quickly, "Okay - I seriously need you to-"

 _"21st?!_ As in, 21st _century?!"_ She exclaimed, stepping back in fear, "That's almost _3_ entire centuries back from when I live!"

" _Listen,"_ he persisted sternly, holding her arms to stop her from panicking, "I'm in a bit of a time paradox. I need your help-"

"Isn't this the era of iPhones, Taylor Swift, and bad politics?" She inquired, one hand at her forehead as she continued in her fit of distraught confusion, "Oh my synthetic neurons - is North Korea _still_ communist?!"

"Yes!" he answered frantically, "Now could you please just-"

"Pizza? They still have pizza and cows here, right? And dinosaurs? Wasn't Jurassic World based on a true story?"

 _"Priscilla!"_

"What did you get yourself into that brought you back to _this_ time?" she sighed before she gasped, noticing the long scar adorning his eye,"Oh my... What'd you do to yourself?"

He gestured to me. "I told you - I'm in a bit of a time paradox."

She finally noticed me, and gave me a distasteful look.

"Is that Eobard Thawne again?"

He nodded.

"Ew," she declared, contorting her face in disgust, "No matter which body form he takes - he still looks like _faecal coliform_."

"Listen, Priscilla, the Flash is going to be here any second," he clarified, "I need you to distract him while I deal with Thawne _."_

"The Flash?" Priscilla murmured, "You mean Wallace? Wally?"

"No. Not Wally. Barry. The original," he continued, pushing the pink fabric into her hands, "Look - could you please pretend to be a psychotic metahuman, or something, and keep him away from me? He can't know I exist, or that I'm here."

Her mouth opened in a small, astounded _o_ as she tipped her head forward in disbelief.

"You want me to meet Barry _Allen_ , the _legend_ -"

"Yes..."

"And engage in an _actual_ fight-"

"Yes!"

"With none other than _Bartholomew_ Allen, history's most _exalted_ -"

"For crying out loud - we do _not_ have time for this!" He ordered sternly, and zoomed around her, and stopped, until she was dressed in a futuristic-styled pink dress, her hair tied up in two buns. She was holding a huge rose-colored gun.

She glared at him.

"Okay - so, just go around destroying stuff, and laugh maniacally from time to time. Just pretend to be evil. It's what villains did in this time period," he commanded, pushing her towards the door, "You have to keep Barry as _far_ away from me and Thawne as possible."

"Why wouldn't you want Barry to see you? He's your-"

"I _know_ , but he can't see us. Either of us," he seethed, irritated, "Look, just do it, okay?! And for the love of god, _don't_ kill anyone. When they catch you, they're going to lock you up in a cell. Play along. I'll come get you. I promise."

"You better not forget about me and leave me stranded in another century!" she scolded worriedly, "Remember what happened in Ancient Rome?"

He picked me up by my collar, but looked at her with exasperation. "I've told you a hundred times - that was an _accident!"_

Footsteps could be heard in the Cortex, along with faraway shouting.

"For the record," she persisted, powering on the gun in her hands, "I'm still mad at you. You won't call, or answer my time-messages, or come visit, but when you need a helping hand dealing with your arch nemesis, _wow_ , look who's racing through the time-space continuum?!"

The boy growled and pinched the skin between his eyes.

"I've told you," he grumbled, "Dating someone who lives in another century is _not easy._ Priscilla, _please_. This is an _emergency_."

"Can we get pizza after? And chocolate? I've always wondered what chocolate actually tasted like..."

"I don't have time for questions. Just _go!"_

Priscilla made a _hmph_ sound and frowned, but left the lab room. The footsteps outside grew louder, and not before long, Cisco was soon heard screaming like a little girl.

"Oh my gosh!" we could hear her squeal excitedly, "Francisco Ramon?! The _Vibe!?_ Great Alphalytes - I'm your _biggest_ fan!"

"What the-?!" Cisco shouted.

A pulse of energy was heard, followed by more high-pitched shrieks and amused feminine laughter.

"Oh dear - this is actually kind of fun!", then more shots of energy being fired. Cisco shrieked as she fired.

"Barry! Help! She's shooting _glitter_ at me!" Cisco pleaded, and the footsteps and male screams soon diminished from earshot as Priscilla led Cisco away from us.

Jolt rolled his eyes.

"She's not the brightest photon in the quanta, but she's _something_ ," he sighed, hefting me higher, smiling evilly, "So where were we again?"

"You - you traveled centuries to bring her here," I concluded, my voice strained, "You can time-travel. Take me back to my home. Please. To the 25th century - to my family. To my children. I'll end this - I'll leave Barry alone. I'll stop everything. I just want to go back..."

His smile melted, and he looked away, no doubt thinking it over, before his eyes glinted harshly again.

"I'm sorry," he answered with a scowl, "I wish it was that simple, but I can't do that."

"Why not?" I begged, acute fear numbing me.

"There are a few...personal... issues you and I need to work out. You owe me answers. A _lot_ of them."

Then he dashed out of the room with me.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

"Nothing gets your appetite going like having to hack into the US military's database, right?" I joked, as Caitlin and I settled down at a small restaurant in Keystone for lunch.

"Mhmm," she answered expressionlessly, avoiding eye contact as she sat across from me.

"Caitlin - what's the matter with you?" I pressed gently, putting my hand over hers, "Is everything okay? You've been...off... all morning."

For the strangest reason, she had been rather quiet and kind of eerie around me all day, as if she didn't want to talk to me.

She had tried to maintain a conversation earlier during the day, but... she spoke less and less as the hours passed, as if she was beginning to dislike me.

Even at Concordance Labs, with Dr. Quale, she seemed to be... distrusting me, second-guessing everything I said. Then, when Dr. Quale had told us the military had confiscated everything they had on Firestorm, Caitlin's shrewd remarks had made it seem as if I was responsible, as if I was up to something.

I didn't know why. She'd always been a very quiet, composed person, but she had eventually warmed up to me. I saw her as one of my closest friends.

What had I done for her to act like this now, all of a sudden?

"It's nothing," she muttered coldly, opening up her menu.

I reached over and pulled it down away from her, frowning in concern.

"Is this about what I said in the morning?" I inquired softly, "About the electron matter being dangerous? It won't hurt Ronnie - I promise. I know how to transmutate it without errors. You've seen what I can do. You know I'm capable of saving him."

"It's not _Ronnie_ I'm worried about..." she murmured darkly, snatching her menu back.

"I - Dr. Stein will be fine as well," I replied, confused.

Why was she being like this?

"Hey - can we get some drinks, please? And a few sandwiches?" She demanded a waiter passing by, her tone almost irritated. He nodded, and my morale plummeted as Caitlin continued to ignore me.

My phone buzzed, and I pulled it out.

 _METAHUMAN ALERT_

 _LOCATION: STAR LABS_

"Oh, god," I mumbled, and I instantly called Cisco. He picked up.

"Cisco - what's going on?" I questioned, worry brimming my voice.

 _(-ere's a crazy fairy girl shooting pink glitter at us!)_ he shouted on the other line.

"What?! Fairy girl? _Glitter?"_ I repeated incredulously.

 _(Burning pink glitter! She's shooting it from some kind of gun! It's not - AAGGGHHHH!)_

I could hear female laughter in the background, along with a sound that could only be a pulsing gun being shot.

Caitlin looked over at me with a look of confusion.

"Where's Barry?" I inquired, nervousness filling my chest.

 _(He can't run! The glittery stuff she's firing? It's somehow upping the coefficient of friction on his suit! It's like she knew this would stop him!)_

"Oh lord," Caitlin stammered.

"Dude - get one of the guns from my lab," I responded urgently.

 _(Can't - she's got us rounded off in the Cortex. There's pink glitter everywhere!)_ Cisco called, _(It's like Tinker Hell here wants us to be stuck here!)_

 _(Aww, Tinker Hell?!)_ a female voice chirped incredulously in the background, _(You've done much better than that!)_

 _(Oh hell no,)_ Cisco responded, _(Trust me, sweetheart, you are definitely Tinker Hell.)_

 _(Cisco! Get off the phone and help me with these carbon ion batteries!)_ Barry yelled in the background.

 _(Sorry - gotta go!)_ and Cisco hung up on me.

A moment passed, as I tried to process everything that just happened.

Cisco and Barry were in trouble, and Caitlin and I were in a different city.

"Well... that was... unique," I muttered, frowning, "Sure hope they're okay."

"What _was_ that?" Caitlin asked.

"I don't know - Cisco said a girl was firing glitter at them from a gun," I answered.

"Probably one of the Rogues, then," she conceded, "They should be able to handle it..."

A waiter delivered our drinks and sandwiches, and Caitlin went back to her silence, acting as if I didn't exist.

Her actions ruined my appetite.

"Okay - what's wrong?" I growled, "If you have a problem with me, then tell me. Giving me the cold shoulder without any reason isn't going to do anything, other than tick me off."

She peeled her eyes away from the table, and onto me, giving me a dark stare that made me wish I hadn't raised my voice.

Then... she sighed.

"I'm sorry. But... I just can't see you in the same light anymore," she answered quietly.

"Why? What did I do wrong?" I asked, _severely_ annoyed, "I'm going out of my way to help you find Ronnie. What's there to-"

"It's not about Ronnie. It's - I'm worried about Barry."

"Barry? Why him?"

She slowly took another bite, as if she was having trouble finding her words, before she gave me that cold gaze again.

"Look - I'm going to be open about this," she asserted, "You've designed a nuclear material that could hurt Barry. That could not only take away his powers, but also physically hurt him. And I don't trust you with him."

I almost choked on my sandwich.

"Caitlin, what the _fuck_ are you saying? Why would you even think I'd want to hurt the man I _lo-"_

"You've had a very interesting dynamic with Barry, haven't you?" She began, slitting her eyes at me, "When you found out there was a speedster in the city, you told us all you'd stop at _nothing_ until you found him, and made him pay for the murder of your parents."

A wave of anger washed over me.

"That was _before_ I knew the Flash was a-"

"Then, when Barry finally revealed his secret to you, the two of you hit it off rather well, if I do say so myself. A little _too_ well..."

 _"Excuse_ me? What... _exactly_ are you accusing me of?"

Her scowl darkened. "Van Kleiss - I sincerely hope I'm wrong about you-"

"You _are_."

"-But the evidence is stacked up against you at this point. You used to want to take the Flash down. Now, you're dating him - and you've designed technology that can kill him," she declared, her voice firm, "I've met enough bad guys to know how they target Barry, but I never imagined one would actually lie to him, and pretend to love him in order to hurt him."

Before I knew it, my fist had struck her hard across the face, and she covered her face with her palm. People around us fell quiet as they began to stare. A purplish red bruise began to bloom on her cheek.

I was unapologetic.

"That's absolute _bullshit_ ," I seethed remorselessly, unable to make sense of my new anger, "Everything you're saying is _wrong."_

In the corner of the building, the waiter from earlier pointed at me, flanked by someone in a black suit. The man in the suit pulled a phone from his coat pocket, throwing us worried glances.

"We need to get out of here," Caitlin whispered, gathering her purse.

I'm not going _anywhere_ with you after what you just accused me of, I thought, but then again, I wasn't planning on going to jail, either. I obeyed and grabbed her car keys from the table.

After paying for the food we didn't eat, I was in the driver's seat of her car, taking us back to Central City.

Neither of us dared say a word to each other.

Which was a good thing.

Caitlin had nothing to say. She was _dead_ wrong about me. Hurt Barry? Where did she get the idea?!

I cut straight through downtown and drove right past our apartment complex, eliciting strange, confused looks from her as she peered out the window in disbelief, and drove down to Lawrence Hills, not stopping until we reached a house I had looked up earlier.

I parked by the curb.

"Let's go," I muttered, unclasping my seat belt, "I'm not finished with my work."

"Artemis, what are we-"

But I had already gotten out of the car at that point, and had made my way up the sidewalk to the large, cozy-looking home.

I knocked on the door, and Caitlin arrived behind me, wringing her fingers in sheer confusion, trying to cover the hurt side of her cheek with her hair.

An elderly woman with blonde hair and a large sweater opened the door, and gave me a quizzical look.

"Mrs. Clarissa Stein?" I asked politely, holding out my hand for a handshake, "My name is Artemis. I'm a physicist at STAR Labs. I'm investigating the disappearance of your husband."

She opened her mouth to say something, but closed it again and opened the door in its entirety.

"Come in."

* * *

 **[Dr. Wells's POV]**

He had brought me back to my home.

I was lying on my side on my couch and he was bandaging up the damage he had conducted on my destroyed shoulder. Blood had washed over my back and across the floor and sofa cushions.

I couldn't feel the right side of my torso.

"If the speed gene can be inherited genetically, why isn't Artemis a speedster?" He inquired, cleaning out the huge gash with alarmingly expertise precision.

"I - I made sure the Speed Force would reject her," I stuttered, closing my eyes as he poured more alcohol onto the open wound.

"What? How?"

"You know a child speedster's powers develop through over time. Well, she feared speedsters for all of her childhood. And she was full of angst during her pre-teen years, being kicked out of foster homes and schools, facing public charges. There's no way the Speed Force would take on someone who was so...against it."

"Why would you do that to her, though?"

I winced as he applied some kind of alcohol-based salve into the open cut.

"Why, though? Why go through so much trouble, ruining your own child's life? Don't you feel shame for what you're doing?"

"Trust me - after everything I've done, I've become conditioned against regret. When you're in my kind of position, you'd do anything to get what you need."

"So?! You had a daughter who was a speedster from birth. You could've just raised her and gotten her to take you back! Why all this trouble with Barry?"

"Look - I never meant to have her. And my goal had always been to take down Barry. She was just a mistake, and raising a speedster would only have gotten in the way of rivaling one, and I honestly had no time for a child. Children are loud. They cry. They're disgusting. They demand attention. They're fussy, and unhygienic. Their lack of independence sickens me. I had intended to keep her out of my way permanently, anyway."

" _Oh?_ You didn't think children were disgusting when you had Isolde and Sidhe. You didn't want to keep _them_ out of your way when they were born."

My blood froze in its veins.

"How - how do you know the names of my sons? They live 4 entire centuries away..."

"I time-traveled, idiot. I know all about your wife and sons. You adore them. They're your only moral weakness _."_

"Well, it's... kind of impossible to love someone who will one day try to wreak carnage upon everything you've built."

"I thought the loving bond between parent and child was unbreakable. What happened?"

"Making sure the Flash would be created was and still is a far more demanding task than raising a mere child. And we hate each other anyway - it's not like she'll suddenly love me if she finds out."

"You want her to _love_ you? After you traumatized her by killing her supposed parents? Then physically abusing her?" He scorned, "At least you show kindness to Barry. You're just an asshole to her."

"It's not my fault," I muttered, pressing my face into the sofa cushion as he pressed something hard into the wound, "At least I wasn't going to kill her back then. She was never supposed to be a threat. But her stupid stepfather changed her future. She grows up to be mine and Barry's enemies. And if he hadn't done that, I would have _never_ brought her to my lab, but with the kind of intelligence she's gained, I need to keep an eye on her. The fact that Barry goes weak in the knees for her makes her all the more important."

"You are _seriously_ fucked up - using your own child as a tool to take down your enemy? Why would the Speed Force _ever_ bond with someone as demented as you?!"

"You have the ability to send me back and end this. Don't blame me for what I'm being forced to do. I'm only making the best of what I have to work with."

"If you weren't already bleeding to death right now because of me, I'd kill you for how stupid you are," he muttered, "'The best of what you have to work with' consists of lying, cheating, deceit and murder. _I'm_ the good guy here."

I felt a sharp sensation that could only have been a needle piercing into my skin. I cried out again, twisted away involuntarily.

"Stop resisting," he commanded, "I need to stitch up the wound."

"Do you even _know_ anything about surgery?" I yelled, shutting my eyes as he pushed the needle in and through.

"Don't worry. I do," he answered gruffly, sending the needle in again, lighting up the nerve endings in blinding pain, "My paternal grandfather's a surgeon."

"That doesn't mean anything!" I protested.

"It _does_ , when your grandfather has to teach you how to stitch up your _own_ wounds time and time again! Now stop complaining!"

The next hour or so consisted of me howling out in pain as the teenager stitched, and him sternly answering my cries with rough threats and insults.

He wasn't lying about knowing how to stitch wounds, though, and not before long, I was able to sit up. The pain stayed in my shoulder, but it was controlled within the boundaries of the bandage now. It would heal in one or two days, given my accelerated healing.

"So your father's a speedster, and your paternal grandfather's a doctor. What other tricks do you have up your sleeves?" I mused, as he handed me a mug of warm tea and drew a towel over the bloodied mess on my couch.

"Well, my mother's side's mostly made up of prodigy physicists. I happen to know a thing or two about the laws of electrodynamics. Came up with a few ideas of my own," he explained, "I found ways to naturally advance my own abilities without harming myself. It explains the non-lethal blue lightning."

I spewed the drink right out of my mouth, and looked to him in disbelief.

 _"Harmless_ blue lightning's impossible, even for a natural-borne speedster," I stammered, "Your cells should be regenerating and weakening in that state. You should be dead."

"Guess I've just got mad skills."

"Even I can't defy physics like that," I murmured, "And others who have tried to reach those states - they suffered from severely fatal side effects. Teach me how you did it."

"Can't," he sighed with a cool smile, patting his knees before getting up, "Giving you the power to go back on your own will sadly screw up my timeline."

"Your timeline?" I squeaked, watching him as he poured himself a mug of tea as well.

"Yeah," he answered, taking an experimental sip, "Well, actually, _your_ timeline _is_ my timeline."

"What does that mean?"

"It means I was _born_ because of the things you did. I mess that up, I wipe myself from existence. And I'm pretty well-liked, where I come from. I'd hate to miss out on my popularity..."

His popularity?

For the first time, I noted the suit he had changed into, when he arrived in our century the second time, with the girl.

His suit was a dark cobalt color, with the lightning bolt symbol at his chest. Ironically, the design was all too familiar, an iconic classic in the future. The steel stitchwork, the tri-carbon polymer material.

How hadn't I recognized it earlier?

"Someone named Cisco Ramon happen to make that for you?"

"It was a birthday present from him, yeah."

"So you're from _this_ century, then..."

"Nope. The particular time remnant you're talking to just happens to have _met_ Cisco Ramon. I meet him at some point in his future. We become pretty close. The suit's pretty cool, to be honest. It's an homage to Barry's original."

The particular time remnant you're talking to... Meaning, even if I killed this remnant, the others would still live. He truly _was_ immortal, then. He'd always escape death, with literal extra lives hidden away in other pockets of time...

I made a tiny reminded to make infinite time remnants when I found a way to increase my power.

I wished I'd been strong enough to capture this speedster, and get all of his other secrets out of him.

I laughed to myself as I instinctively thought to kill his parents, and traumatize him as a child so as to manipulate him as an adult.

His parents, I thought, the realization prickling my skin like thorns.

 _My father just so happened to be a speedster._

 _My paternal grandfather's a genius doctor._

 _Barry_ was a speedster with a doctor for a father...

 _And I thought Joe West was the detective of the city._

He would know who Joe was.

He knew Cisco, too.

 _My mother's side's mostly made up of prodigy physicists._

No...

"I thought I killed you," I seethed, once the realization hit me, "My grandson isn't supposed to live."

"Oops," he jibed sarcastically, giving me a crooked smirk.

I rose and gave him an unforgiving glare.

He coolly sipped his coffee, smiling casually.

"See, G _randpa_ , the thing is - I just saved your life back in Artemis's lab," he announced, grinning casually, "You kill this time remnant, you try to kill my original copy and prevent me from doing this? You automatically die."

Blood roared in my ears as his words clicked in.

"Not bad," I conceded, "You've successfully created a time trap for me..."

I was stuck, with an annoying, but powerfully skilled speedster for a grandson. Any attempt to take him out resulted in suicide.

And I was stuck with Barry, because if I didn't see his development as the Flash all the way through, I'd never see my children again.

"Like father, like son, am I right?" He jested, saying my thoughts out loud, "You try hurting Barry, you never go back to your family. You try hurting me, and it's the ultimate Total KO."

I was about to counter his comment with a snarky comeback of my own before he surprised me, dropping the mug from his hands. I immediately lurched down to catch it.

He pushed a shock of electricity right into my chest with his hand while I was distracted, and I immediately felt revitalized, electrified with new, raw energy.

Natural superspeed.

"Let's go for a little race," he challenged with a nod, before bolting out of my living room, blue lightning trailing after him.

The powerful electricity flickered and flared from within me - and I could instinctively tell it was unbelievably energetic, like a fiery, murderous bolt of lightning that needed to be _unleashed._

A _temporary_ bolt of lightning, one that would fade if I didn't use it now.

This was the kind of energy I had been missing.

The kind I _needed_. But _this_ was just a small taste, I could tell, watching my hands vibrate at a stronger, more stable frequency.

I _needed_ more of this...

I flashed right after him, refusing to let him escape me.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

After we had spoken to Mrs. Stein, I drove back to our apartment complex downtown. Caitlin was supposed to go back to her own place, but she wouldn't stop following me, like a guilty shadow.

And it annoyed me.

I pushed the door of my apartment open and entered, and Caitlin followed in right behind me.

"You shouldn't be here," I grumbled, still upset with her, "Leave me alone."

She murmured something unintelligible, and I decided I would just ignore her presence, as she had been ignoring mine for the most of the day.

Let's see how Dr. Snow liked a taste of her own medicine, then.

Forget her, I concluded. I had work to do.

My satchel was now stuffed with printouts and worksheets, and notes I had scrawled - all for the sake of bringing back Ronnie and Dr. Stein.

 _Why was I even doing this for her?_

I was going out of my way to help her find her happiness, and instead, she _tainted_ mine.

She didn't deserve my help.

She _deserved_ her misery.

I vigorously shook my head, hoping those thoughts would dissolve.

Stop. Stop. _Stop._

She's your friend. She's always been an older sister to you.

Work this out. She isn't Wells. She'll understand.

 _No._ I was in no mood to talk to her. I took my things, and went to the guest room/office and left her in my living room.

An eye for an eye would make everyone blind. Actions speak louder than words. The best revenge was to be unlike your enemy, show them kindness.

My mind was flooded with old proverbs and criticisms against any hateful thoughts I'd have towards Caitlin, but I couldn't help but wonder where on _earth_ she got the idea that I'd even _think_ of hurting Barry.

My stomach grumbled, and I couldn't ignore my hunger. Neither of us had eaten since breakfast. I stepped back outside and reheated some leftovers, and set an extra plate in front of Caitlin.

"Here. Eat. You didn't have lunch because of me," I muttered, turning my back to her as I began brewing some tea.

I could feel her eyes watching me expressionlessly.

Was she feeling guilty? What did she want to say?

Silence wasn't going to solve anything at this point.

I sighed as I returned to her with two mugs of fresh tea, and placed one towards her.

"I'm sorry I hit you," I said dryly, "Back in Keystone."

"I probably deserved it," she mumbled.

"You did, to be honest."

She gave a guilty smile.

I didn't smile back.

She dropped eye contact and quietly stirred her tea with a spoon.

"I'm sorry," I announced sardonically, "I _am_ lying to you. To Dr. Wells, to Cisco, to Barry, to everyone. You're right about me, Caitlin. I'm evil. And I truly _do_ want to do away with Barry."

She gave me a quizzical look.

"Oh, don't act so surprised," I taunted, "He deserves it. He's an evil, maniacal, careless, hideous, bloodthirsty murderer... Wait, _no... That_ won't work..."

Her look of confusion melted into a glare.

"Maybe... maybe I should exact revenge on him for not spending enough time with me. Yes! That's gotta be why I want him dead. The man's the worst boyfriend in the history of the worst boyfriends. I mean, it's obvious to everyone - I'm _clearly_ his last priority, and I'm a territorial, overly-possessive, vindictive girlfriend... Wait, that doesn't quite fit either..."

She didn't say anything.

"Aha! I've got it! I'm in it for his _money!"_ I mocked, faking a smile, "Yeah, because I am _clearly_ starving myself to death by living on my own with a dirt poor 180k salary. And Barry is clearly _not_ earning less than a third of what I am. Yes, that's it. That's my evil plan. That's the reason why I became an engineer. Why I discovered a subatomic particle. Why I spend time with you and Cisco, and why I'm trying to bring Ronnie back. Why I worry day and night about Barry being safe. Because in the end, I just want his money."

"You don't need to be a jerk about it," she whispered _,_ "I get it."

"Caitlin, are you using LSD?" I asked casually, taking a bite of food.

She scowled. "No. What the hell...?"

"Because I genuinely believe your ability to think might be impaired."

Her frown lessened, and she looked away again.

"If you're using LSD, it's nothing to be afraid of. We all experiment at some point in our lives, and there _are_ ways we can help you-"

"Stop."

 _"No."_

"Artemis, I'm sorry."

"No, you're not. You accused me of wanting to hurt Barry. A sensible person would _never_ be able to think that. So tell me, is it LSD? Or maybe PCP? Straight up _meth?"_

She looked sad. "Artemis, I'm sorry. I don't know what I was thinking."

"Really? You seemed to know just fine, back in the restaurant. You told me you couldn't see me in the same light anymore. And that you were being open with me. Caitlin, don't lie. You said exactly what you wanted to say."

I stubbornly placed another bite in my mouth.

"I'm sorry," she murmured.

"Eat your food," I ordered.

"Stop telling me what to do."

"No. If you act like a baby, you'll get treated like one."

"Van Kleiss, just knock it off," she insisted quietly.

We sat in silence for the next few minutes. I studied her, shamelessly eating my food in front of her, while she had her sad brown eyes glued to the tabletop, guilt-ridden.

I began to feel bad.

But not as bad as I felt betrayed.

"You know something, Cait?" I inquired softly, all mockery leaving me, "I don't understand why Dr. Wells hates me. He just... _can't_ seem to bear having me around. I figured it's something that can't be changed. Him and I are just... _wired_ to anti each other. But _you?_ You've always been supportive of me. We became friends instantly. You're understanding. Compassionate. Intelligent. Sophisticated, even. I've been working to find Ronnie and save him, because I thought you deserved the same kind of happiness that I feel when I'm with Barry."

She pressed her lips together, and her eyes began to shine with the beginnings of new tears.

"If anyone else said something like that to me, I wouldn't have cared. People throw accusations around all the time. Nobody's perfect, and it's easy to find mistakes in others," I continued, placing down my fork, "It's easy to point fingers, when you don't know or don't trust someone."

I paused, before I found my voice again. "But... I thought you _knew_ me. I thought you trusted me."

A single tear crept down her cheek.

"Artemis, I _do_. I - I'm sorry, I-"

I handed her a napkin, and sighed as I leaned over and embraced her.

"Just stop with the meth, okay?" I advised softly, patting her hair, "If I hear you saying stupid crap like that again, I'm personally going to tear down your apartment until I find where you're hiding your crystal stash."

She made a sound that could've been either a small laugh, or a sob, or a combination of the two. "You're insane."

"Yeah, I love you too."

She put an arm around me, returning the embrace.

Our little moment was interrupted by a loud knock at the door, and I got up to answer it.

I cracked the door open, and found two male figures, both struggling to catch their breaths, sopping wet, bruised, and covered head to toe in molten pink glitter.

"Woah," I managed, letting them inside.

Cisco and Barry both fell face-forward onto the floor, a cloud of glitter flying off of them, and they sighed with sheer exhaustion. I immediately shut the door, and ran to go grab towels.

"What happened?" Caitlin called out, before she gasped.

"Taking days off is bad," a male voice grumbled.

"Evil psycho wannabe space chick," Cisco groaned.

I darted back over to them and handed them both towels, and gave Barry back his shirt from that morning, and Cisco an oversized hoodie I hoped would fit.

Barry peeled off the cowl from his suit - it wasn't recognizable under all that thick pink stuff anyway - and took a deep breath. His eyes and jaw were the only parts of his face covered by the glitter, which he was trying to rub away with the towel. Cisco wasn't as lucky. Every inch of him was blocked out, like a glittery pink swamp monster. He was sitting up now, and trying futilely to shake the stuff out of his hair.

It was stuck.

I covered his head with a towel, and rubbed, trying to help him.

"So, my suit's essentially dead," Barry mumbled beside him, unclasping the chest portion and switching it out for the shirt.

"We'll have to clean it," Cisco muttered under the towel, "Nobody ruins my suits and has the last laugh."

"What was today's last laugh?" Caitlin asked.

Cisco removed the towel, and looked to Barry with a shudder.

"Let's just say... today's metahuman was creepy af," he began gloomily, pulling the hoodie over his glittered shirt, "For one, she _knew_ who I was. Barry's enemies rarely know our names. Then, she kept calling me 'the Vibe'."

"The _Vibe_?" I questioned, frowning.

"Second, she tried to act like she was crazy. She kept _pretending_ she was an evil psychopath," Barry added, confusion hanging in his tone, "But... she seemed really annoyed, and actually kind of bored. Like, someone _forced_ her to prance into the Lab, and specifically target Cisco and me with a glitter gun, trap us in the Cortex."

Caitlin raised an eyebrow.

"At first, we thought she was working with the Rogues, what with the weird gun and all, but she kept using this... really weird language, and kept cursing, and said she hated the 21st century," Cisco continued.

"Snart and Rory are strange, but I doubt they'd ever say 'My mother's going to lock me up in my sleeping quarters if I'm not home in time to complete my History of Quantum Irregularities project,'" Barry stated expectantly.

"It gets worse," Cisco asserted, wringing his hands, "She told us she _wasn't_ our enemy. And that she was our biggest fan. Then after a while, she... just gave up."

" Like, _legit_ gave up. She put her gun down, threw up her arms in surrender, told us she was tired, and let us walk her into the Pipeline."

"And _didn't_ use the opportunity to attack us. Then she told us that she had a great time, and we were her heroes and she'd always remember this fondly when she got back home."

I scowled. "So... today's metahuman was a glitter-shooting fangirl who...just wanted to pay a visit?"

"It gets weirder," Barry affirmed, frowning.

"How?" Caitlin questioned.

Cisco and Barry faced each other with strange expressions, before Cisco grabbed my laptop off of the coffee table and opened it. Caitlin and I moved so we could see what he was trying to show us.

He had accessed the STAR Labs surveillance cameras in the Pipeline, and played footage in one of the new cells from earlier today.

A girl in a shiny pink dress with dyed hair to match was sitting down against the back wall of the cell, legs crossed at her feet.

 _(How old are you?)_ Cisco asked incredulously, off of the screen.

 _(I reached 16 year units three month units ago,)_ she answered with a shrug.

 _(Year units?! Who talks like that?!)_ Barry questioned, off of the screen as well.

 _(Everyone does, where I come from,)_ she chirped.

 _(And... where do you come from, then?)_ Barry asked.

 _(Yeah. What part of the world is this, where everyone knows our names? Where... people talk so strangely?_ ) Cisco added.

 _(Oh - I'm from Opal City_ _.)_

 _(Opal_ _?! ) _Barry's voice repeated in disbelief.

 _(Dude. I know Opal is_ _a bit wack, but... not that __wack.)_ Cisco urged.

 _(What is 'wack'?)_ the girl asked innocently.

"Dude. This is..." I began.

"Definitely wack," Caitlin finished for me.

We continued to watch the footage. Cisco and Barry kept asking the girl questions, and she replied with strange answers. At some point, though, she began to panic, and started to cry.

 _(He forgot about me. I can't believe he forgot about me,)_ she whimpered, sobbing in her hands.

 _( Who forgot about you?)_

 _(I thought he said he'd come get me..._ ) she continued, crying out loud, _(He promised he'd take me back home.)_

 _(Umm... Priscilla? Do you..._ _want to call your mother?)_

 _(Barry!)_

 _(Dude - she's just a kid. Her parents must be worried sick about her! We can't just lock a kid up in a cell forever.)_

 _(There's no point in trying to call her. Or my father. Or anyone_ _,)_ she replied, _(They're not_ _born yet.)_

"LSD. This has _got_ to be LSD..." I commented.

In the camera footage, the girl rose, and began hitting her fists against the palladium in desperation. _(Henry - Henry, please come get me! I did what you asked me to!_ _I want to go home now!)_

 _(What the-)_

 _(Umm.. Priscilla, there's nobody here but us three.)_

 _(There's a fourth. I told him I wouldn't tell you about him, but he's here, somewhere. And I've had enough.)_

 _(Wouldn't tell us what about him?)_

 _(Barry. Now would be the time to send her cell back in the Pipeline. We can't babysit a psychopath.)_

 _(I am not a psychopath. I am mentally and emotionally sound,)_ she cried, pounding her fist in anger.

 _(Clearly_ _.)_

 _(Cisco - I'm actually worried now. She needs to go back home_ _.)_

 _(No, she's a psycho,)_ Cisco stated sternly, _(She said her mother isn't born yet. She talks like she's from the future, or something. And she said she hated the name I came up with for her,_ _which is the worst thing I've ever heard, and on top of all that, I'm not liking her little Sailor Moon getup. There's wayyy too much pink.)_

 _(She's crazy, but still! She's someone's child! I think we need to tell the police.)_

 _(Henry - why aren't you here yet?!) She wailed._

 _(It's okay - I'm here!)_ a faint voice was heard, before a bolt of lightning shot into the chamber, and... the girl was gone. No more cries. No more questions. Nothing.

Caitlin's jaw fell.

"Oh, you think that's surprising. Get this-" Barry answered, playing back the footage to the lightning, and pausing before zooming in.

We were barely able to see the outlines of a blue shadowy figure, in the shape of a person.

"I - a speedster?!" Caitlin whispered.

"A blue Barry..." I mumbled.

"A blueberry?" Cisco asked.

"No. A blue speedster," Caitlin remarked.

"Wait - so the girl just... disappeared for good?!"

"I ran thermal, energy, and DNA scans. They - they disappeared. Someone escaped our Pipeline..."

"But - but there was a girl in the cell. She can't just have vanished. And - and the tesla supermagnets enforcing the chambers walls - even a _speedster_ shouldn't be able to break through. You can't just _phase_ through objects," Caitlin stammered.

"You can," Barry and I answered.

"Say what?" Cisco asked.

"The man in yellow did it. He moved like a ghost, straight through walls," Barry explained dryly.

"I had shot bullets at him. They passed straight through him."

"Are we going to ignore the fact that there's a _third_ speedster out there? With the name Henry? Which is Barry's dad's name, no less?!" Caitlin added quietly, "And the same exact suit as Barry, but in a different color? And that he ran off with a juvenile metahuman criminal, who  knew your names and... clearly didn't belong in the 21st century."

"Say that again?" Cisco asked.

"What?"

"That last part... Say it again."

"That he ran off with a metahuman who knew your names? And didn't... belong in the 21st century?" Caitlin murmured, confused.

I looked to Cisco and Barry with looks of fear.

They understood.

"Oh," Caitlin said, realizing what we were getting at.

"That's the only plausible explanation. The strange language-"

"The friction-decreasing glitter technology, which worked unlike anything we've seen before-"

"Knowledge of who we were?"

"The mother not being born yet-"

"And the terrible sense of style?"

"They weren't from this century. They time-traveled."

* * *

 **[Dr. Wells's POV]**

The taste of electricity began to dim and completely faded by the time I had caught up with the boy again.

I found him in Artemis's destroyed lab room, with the girl - Priscilla, leaning against the desk, Jolt seated relaxedly in the chair. My wheelchair was placed beside him.

"Was wondering what took you so long..." he jeered, twirling a ballpoint pen in his fingers.

"Why'd you bring me back here?"

"For a guy who's supposed to be a renowned genius, you're seriously clueless," he scoffed, gesturing to the destroyed room, "I brought you back here so you could clean up the mess you made. There's thousands of dollars worth of equipment in this lab, and it took my mother several weeks on end to build it all."

"I'm not a maid. _You_ made this mess, not me. If you love your mother so much, take responsibility for your own actions."

He wore an amused smile. "Take responsibility for your own actions? Weren't you the man who abandoned his own child to chase after his arch nemesis?"

"You certainly ** _don't know when to watch your tongue,"_** I growled, angrily stalking over to him with buzzing hands.

He cocked up an eyebrow at me. "Listen, don't bother trying to scare me. You know for a fact I'm much faster than you. You even think of touching me, and I'm ripping that arm clean off of your body. A one-armed speedster, huh? Yeah, losing that kind of balance does your momentum _wonders_."

The pain in the muscle memory of my shoulder called out to me.

I faltered, brought my voice and hands back to their normal states.

I couldn't believe my own fear.

An 18 year old was... superior to me.

A boy - born from my own _lineage_ , no less - had me trapped, helpless.

I had lost.

Priscilla smiled at him, and he returned the expression.

"I'm sorry for bringing you back without your permission and that we didn't have time to go sight-seeing. I seriously owe you one, P."

"Are you _humoring_ me?" she gushed, "I got to meet Bartholomew Allen! And the _Vibe -_ dear _lord,_ Francisco Ramon is even more adorable in person! Yes, attacking them with a glitter gun was... not how I fancied I'd meet them, and I had hoped to meet Caitlin Snow as well, but for _Higgs Boson's_ sake - I _met_ the Flash. That's _anybody's_ dream come true. This was even better than the time we went to a Beatles concert!"

"Why do you keep calling Cisco the Vibe?" I asked quietly.

They both purposely ignored my question.

Jolt smiled at her again, before he faced me and rose, grinning. "Well, it was nice meeting you, _Dr. Wells._ You're a sick heartless asshole, and I'm glad we got to talk. Just know one thing..."

I tensed, and even my speed couldn't have stopped him from curling iron fingers around my neck in the span of a heartbeat. Blue electricity flickered from his eyes.

 ** _"You disobey me, you hurt anyone in this timeline - in my timeline - and you'll return home to find your two sons in coffins_** ** _, "_** he threatened, smiling cruelly, _**"After all, you did say we gotta take responsibility for our actions, right?"**_

"You're Barry's kid," I squeaked, hoping my words would remind him to show mercy, "The Allens' are supposed to be the good guys."

He dropped me to the floor again, and shrugged a single shoulder. "Then again, I _am_ half Thawne."

He snapped his fingers, and a time portal ripped through the air and spun in place, swirling with dimensional energies.

He turned to face me one last time, smirking knowingly.

"Have fun cleaning up the mess you made. Bye, Felicia."

"Who's Felicia?" Priscilla asked.

"Honestly, Priscilla - you make me want to cry sometimes," and he grabbed her before he darted into the portal, disappearing for _good_ , I hoped.

I finally let out a breath of relief.

He was gone.

He had finally left.

No more terror. No more wraiths. No more physical pain.

No chance at infinite speed.

And now - no way home. No way out of this madness that I had created. No way back to my sons. To the _honest_ life I had once lived...

Not unless I figured out another way.

I lay down on the ground and closed my eyes, sighing.

For the first time in fifteen years, I felt lost.

And afraid.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

"So, our day made no sense..." Cisco concluded.

"Judging by the bruise on your face, Caitlin, I'm guessing you and Artemis encountered some friction as well?" Barry asked.

"I bet you both totally ruined them bad guys out in Keystone, huh?" Cisco raved.

Caitlin gave me a nervous, quizzical look, and I frowned.

"Umm... there were no bad guys out in Keystone," she began.

"I... was the one who hit her," I added cautiously, nervously twirling a piece of hair, "But - but we're totally cool now."

Barry scowled at me. "You _hit_ Caitlin in the face?"

"I _said_ we're totally cool now," I protested, "And _hey_ \- what she said to me warranted _much_ worse than just a punch."

Caitlin pouted.

Barry scowled at me and crossed his arms.

"Talk. Now," he ordered sternly.

I narrowed my eyes at him, and kicked my feet up onto the table stubbornly, arms crossed. "First things first, do _not_ talk to me like that. Secondly, _I'm_ not the one who needs to give you an explanation. _Caitlin_ accused me of working against you. She said I was dangerous. She's giving me the same crap Wells does."

Cisco wore a lost expression, and put a hand on Caitlin's shoulder. "Caitlin. We talked about this."

"What?! You _talked_ about this?" I interjected, lurching forward in disbelief.

"Yes! No! We - we were just talking about how there were a few suspicious coincidences between you and Barry!" He answered.

 _"Suspicious?!_ " I scorned.

"No, that's not what I meant. Bad choice of words," Cisco stuttered, fidgeting away from me, "There's nothing suspicious about _you_ \- we just thought your _past_ seemed kind of far-fetched-"

Tears immediately welled behind my glasses.

"My past was _far-fetched_?" I scoffed, heat traveling up to my face, "Cisco - my mother was _stabbed_ right before my eyes."

"Hey-" Barry tried, his tone cajoling.

"Bad choice of words again!" Cisco cried out, "I meant-"

"Stop talking!" Barry ordered Cisco, reaching for my hands, "Artemis - it's not like that."

I quickly pulled them away from him. _Barry_ was in on this?

Didn't _anyone_ at STAR Labs trust me?!

"Artemis, we _told_ you we-" Caitlin began.

"You've told me more than enough," I seethed, getting up before my tears would reveal themselves.

I felt a hand grab my wrist to stop me from moving away.

"Artemis, let us explain," Barry pleaded, pulling me back.

"Barry - let me go," I muttered, futilely trying to wrench my hand from his grip. He only tugged me in closer.

"No," I snapped, scowling at him, "Maybe you should stay away, and work out with Cisco and Caitlin as to whether or not I'm suspicious or dangerous. You all clearly hold doubts about me, if you need to be talking about it behind my back."

"Artemis, it's not like that. Sit down, and let us explain-" and Barry had pulled me in beside him against my will, held his arms around me as they began.

I listened quietly, as they told me everything.

I wanted to shut my ears.

I wanted to drown out their voices.

I wanted to pretend Caitlin and Cisco _weren't_ actually confessing their doubts to me, that this wasn't happening.

I wanted for Barry to let me go, so I could leave them, lock myself up in my room and be alone. But he wouldn't let up, and that only made it worse.

Caitlin and Cisco were nothing but apologies, and Barry did nothing but soothe me, kissing my forehead and gently combing his fingers through my hair. But I felt hollow on the inside.

"We - we just wanted to be on the same page as you about this," Cisco urged softly, "And I'm sorry for being an idiot, and saying things I didn't mean. You know I love you."

"Mhmm," I voiced dryly.

"And Artemis, I can't apologize enough for what I said to you today," Caitlin said softly, "I - we know for a fact that you're the last person on earth who'd hurt us."

She didn't sound like she believed herself.

"Yeah. Thanks," I muttered, untangling myself from Barry's arms. Before he could object, I rose from the couch and went to my room, and quietly shut the door.

I wasn't aware of how much time passed.

Or whether or not they were still there.

I wanted to be alone, and to drown out my thoughts.

My breathing hitched, and I slumped down against the door, pulling my knees up to my chest.

I didn't know what to think.

Every second I had spent in Central City had been dedicated to the people sitting outside. Two of whom had just told me every little detail they thought dubbed me a potential enemy, before they hastily justified themselves, promised me they were my friends, that they didn't believe it.

My fingertips rubbed at the edges of my eyelids in order to squeeze away any tears, and a primal sob tugged at the base of my throat.

My friends had doubted me from the very beginning.

And nothing I had done had changed their opinions. Not one bit.

And I doubted it ever would, at this point.

Their friendship would always be ridden with doubts, accusations and distances.

Why was Barry in a relationship with me, then? If I was the so-called enemy?

Why was I bothering by staying at STAR Labs, studying metahuman genetics, creating unbelievably dangerous technology - if I still wasn't accepted here.

The door behind me was gently pushed open, and Barry sat down beside me, murmuring words of support and love and kindness and comfort.

But I didn't want those words. They were a poor attempt at veiling a sad reality.

I didn't want him to be there.

I didn't want him with me, but the sobs broke out anyway and all my barriers fell.

Then he was trying to get me to stop crying but nothing made sense and I wanted to be alone and there was a quiet panic in my chest and I was weeping deliriously.

And I hated Caitlin.

And I hated Cisco.

And I hated Lin Walker for leaving and making it seem that I was responsible for his disappearance.

And I hated the man in yellow for screwing up my life and taking away my parents and I hated Dr. Wells for the tenseness in my relationship with him and I hated Barry for having to play hero all the time and refusing to leave me alone and for seeing me all weak and pathetic when I wanted to be alone.

He carefully pulled me down by the shoulders so I was curled up in fetal position, head in his lap, his hands comfortingly stroking my hair again.

"They know its not true," he assured, dropping a kiss at my temple before he wiped tears from my cheek with his sleeve, "It's going to be okay. They're wrong, and they know that. And I know that. It's over now, Artemis."

I tried to swallow the hot lump that had caught in my throat, tried to stop my breath from quivering, tried to convince myself I had overreacted.

Barry was right.

It wasn't as bad as it seemed.

Caitlin and Cisco knew right from wrong.

They'd come around.

We were both dead wrong.

* * *

 **Aight. I know for a fact that the names of the Tornado Twins are Don and Dawn West-Allen.**

 **But tbh? I can't fathom having two twin children around... with homophonic names. Out of all the names you could've chosen to name your children, YOU MADE THEIR NAMES RHYME?! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!**

 **So I switched Dawn for Daisy. Thought it would be cute if Iris and her daughter both had flower-y names.**

 **Thanks again and pls leave a review.**

 **I seriously appreciate the support you guys have been giving me.**

 **\- DBV**


	20. A Promise of Defeat

**96 follows? 69 faves? Wow, I never actually thought my little online novel would actually gain this kind of success...**

 **Thank you all soo much for your never-ending support, yours reads, your reviews, for everything you've done! I seriously appreciate it!**

 **Also - did you guys hear about Tom Felton? I legit broke down into tears of happiness and joy and disbelief and other emotions. I cannot wait to see him take on a role opposite Grant Gustin, that too in my favorite TV show! Julian Dorn is going to _slay!_ I hope I'll be able to finish this story before Season 3 premieres.**

 **Anyway, thank you for reading and please leave a review! I hope you enjoy this next chapter :)))**

* * *

He'd insisted on staying with me, and asking him to leave me alone with futile by that point. I groaned and complained about it, telling him I wasn't in the mood to put up with him and that - _really_ \- I'd feel better if I was alone, but he swept out of the room with a loud _whoosh_ and returned in pajamas.

He crossed his arms in front of me, and arched an eyebrow stubbornly.

"Ugh," I muttered in exasperation, grabbing an old nightdress from my closet before I went to the bathroom to change, "If you're going to be a baby about it, then _fine_. You can stay."

But, secretly, I felt relieved. Having Barry around always made me happy. And happy was a good contrast from the intense frustration I had felt all day.

When I emerged, I found him sitting at the edge of the bed, quiet as he stared at the floor with sad green eyes.

"Bar - what's wrong?" I asked, kneeling down to look up at him.

Yeah...

What's wrong, other than the fact that your friends clearly don't trust me? And the fact that the man who saved your life thinks I'm going to hurt you?

"I wanted to apologize," he answered, avoiding eye contact, "For yelling at you earlier."

"Nah, it's fine," I answered, taking his hand in mine, overwhelmed with guilt, "I probably should've been a little bit more mature. I just - I don't know, she just told me she didn't trust me, and the next thing you know, there's a bruise on her face."

"Still, though, I should've listened to your side of the story before judging. I mean, you're not the kind of person who'll go around hitting people without reason, and I have no reason to question your-"

"Barry, for Christ's sake, stop apologizing," I interjected, placing a small kiss on his forehead as I rose, "You didn't do anything wrong. Now just... just stop giving me a headache, and get into bed."

He smiled, and murmured something about "two nights in a row." I rolled my eyes in response, and fixed the covers over myself.

"Yeah, well, if you're going to make a habit of it, you might as well just move in."

"Huh. That escalated quickly," he mused, clearly satisfied with what I just said.

"No, it didn't. You already have the keys to my place, and well, we're pretty happy together. If you wanted to make it a thing, then I'm comfortable with it."

"Well, then," and he wound an arm under my shoulders and around my frame, pulling me in against him and relentlessly placing soft, fast kisses all over my face, free hand tilting my jaw for a more open angle.

"Barry - agh - stop. Stop," I protested, unable to pull or turn away from his smothering, "I take back what I said - you're too annoying for me to tolerate you round the clock."

"'Course I am," he retorted, dropping a last kiss on my cheek before settling down, still cuddling me.

"Hmph."

Truth be told - the little frenzy of kisses made me feel better, the unexpected euphoria fighting the uneasiness.

But worry was still knotted in my chest. And I didn't do well to hide it from Barry, who leaned over to face me.

"Hey... What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"I'm going to try that again," he declared gently, "Tell me what's wrong."

"I told you. Nothing."

"Alright, unless you want me to start kissing you again..." he threatened softly, his hand gently turning my jaw towards him again.

I let out an angry sigh and leaned my forehead against his shoulder. "Barry, it's Caitlin and Dr. Wells... _Wells_ , I can deal with. But... I don't want enmity with Caitlin. Or Cisco. And I know what they mean to you. I don't want for you to have to choose between me or them."

"Cisco's just been a bit clumsy with his words today. I bet my life that he'd never even remotely dislike you," Barry asserted kindly, "And don't worry about Caitlin... She's on the same page as well."

"No, she isn't," I replied, my voice muffled against his shirt.

A hand soothingly rubbed my back in consolation, and I was warmly hugged. "Trust me. I had a rather pointed conversation with her. Both this morning and just now, while you were busy moping in your room. Let's just say she's been... thoroughly...convinced."

"What did you say to her?"

"I told her the fact that she didn't trust you broke my heart, and she needed to make her own decisions rather than giving into everything that comes out of Dr. Wells's mouth."

"Why is Dr. Wells so evil in the first place?" I asked, annoyed.

"I - he's not _evil_ , he's just-"

"Extremely biased against me and sees everything I do as a possible threat? What have I done to deserve that, other than accept _his_ invitation to come work at _his_ Lab?"

"I'm not happy with that, either. Nobody is. I had genuinely believed that his opinion of you had changed when we told you who I was-"

"On a scale of 1 to 10, how mad would you be at me if I knocked his teeth out?"

 _"Excuse_ me?"

"You heard me. I _hate_ working with him, Barry. There are moments between us when I just feel so... _resented_. It's obvious he'd be much happier if I wasn't around. I can't explain why, but I think he feels that I'm just... getting in the way."

He tipped my chin up so I was looking at him. Even in the darkness, I could tell he was surprised by my statement.

"Artemis-"

"Yeah, he's outwardly nice to me, but that's only because of _you_. I'm certain that if it wasn't for our relationship, or for the hyper electron, he'd never bother keeping me here. It's like... it's like I _owe_ him something, and he's keeping me around because he wants me to repay that debt."

Barry propped himself up on an elbow, frowning down at me. "Hey, you don't owe him anything. And this is the first time I've ever heard you say something like this. Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"

I sat up and hugged my knees, scowling. "Because. Your life is shit."

"How so? And what does _that_ have to do with you hiding all of this from me?"

"You don't think I notice you being treated like dirt at work just because of your age? Or the fact that you're always putting your _life_ on the line to stop thieves, thugs, psychopaths and scoundrel metahumans?" I scorned quietly, "Honestly, how heartless would I have to be to have you worry about something so _trivial_ as an unstable relationship with Wells, on top of all the other issues you deal with on a normal basis?"

He rubbed his face with both hands, obviously irked, before drawing me in, hand cupping my cheek. "I don't _care_. If you have an issue with someone or something, you're supposed to _tell_ me. What kind of hero am I supposed to be if I'm always running around saving strangers, but can't stop to look out for my own girlfriend?"

I pulled away and placed my hands at his shoulders. A stubborn push had him sinking onto his back, his hands at my elbows, holding me over his torso.

"I'm not going to give you any more tension than you already put up with, Barry. That's _not_ the way this is supposed to work."

He scowled darkly at me. "Not telling me is only going to make me worry _more_ , genius."

"You can't worry about something you don't know about. And thanks for the compliment."

"Artemis, you know _nothing_ of what a relationship should be like."

"Really?" I scoffed, "Then I apologize for my lack of knowledge. Do entertain me, Barry: What _is_ a relationship supposed to be like then?"

His lips spread into a tiny smirk, and he caught the back of my neck with his hand. "I'm glad you asked."

Before I could object, he pulled me down for a kiss that instantly turned satisfyingly dizzying.

I hesitated for only a second before slinging my arms underneath his neck and shoulders, kissing him back just as harder as he pulled the blanket over us.

* * *

 **[Dr. Wells's POV]**

"Listen, sir, I'm sorry but there's nothing I can do for you anymore," Warren growled, sitting across from me at my desk, "There's no way you can continue to stay and work here."

"Warren, this lab is my-"

"Life's dedication, most prized possession, yada yada. I understand, sir," he answered sternly, "But you're _not_ doing anything productive, and you're making _zero_ profit whatsoever. You have _no_ business plan, your budget is underwater, and your capital? Nonexistent! As your bankruptcy lawyer, I've done everything I _can_ to protect you. _I've_ been the one responsible for dealing with law suit after law suit. _I've_ had to clean up the financial mess your little probable accelerator created."

"It's a _particle_ accelerator, Warren-"

" _I've_ been the one arguing your cases while the city rotted away because of you, _I've_ been the one managing what's left of your budget, overlooking your debts and you haven't so much as lifted a _finger_ to help," he scorned, his thin blonde hair shaking on his head as he spoke, "You had some significant investments _left,_ Dr. Harrison! You were supposed to use that to fix up your mistakes, but your lab is still in shambles. What exactly did you _do_ with the money?"

Oh. Right.

The remaining investments...

Was he talking about the investments I had used to nurse Barry out of his coma... so he could become the Flash?

Or the investments Cisco used to build tech... specifically, the Flash suit?

The ones Caitlin used to sustain her medical wing... to look after the Flash?

The investments I was using to sustain the particle accelerator as a prison... to hold the criminals who went after the Flash?

Or the investments I had used to spoil Artemis, and guide her towards synthesizing vankleissium into a super-powered electron... so she could one day try to murder the Flash?

"The money was used to pay my remaining scientists, Warren..."

His nostrils flared in disbelief. "And what exactly have your _scientists_ been doing?"

"I-"

"Mr. Harrison, your lab is headed for a _permanent_ shutdown! Irreversible foreclosure! I've done as _much_ as I can to let you keep your facilities, but you are _out_ of money. Unless you start making capita right away, start doing work that will contribute to society again, the government _will_ take this lab facility, and everything in it, away from you."

I fell silent.

The money had been an issue since I let the accelerator explode. I knew I'd start losing my wealth because of my actions. Law suits, repairs, going out of business. Hiring a third scientist was a big risk, but the ends justified the means, and I had always had a safety net when it came to accrued wealth.

And now I didn't.

I had worked so hard to keep everything a secret, and now, at the hands of an issue I considered negligible, I'd be legally ruined once the government found out what I was actually doing.

Where would I hide the metahumans? I couldn't _kill_ all of them...

And Cisco's tech, for Barry?

Caitlin's archive of medical information, all those meticulous files, research and paperwork?

Artemis's electron-based inventions?

I'd _never_ be able to make it back in time if we couldn't find a way to support ourselves _fast._

"Thank you for letting me know, Warren."

He gave me a dull handshake to seal his threat, and picked up his belongings before he left.

I followed him outside in my wheelchair, into the Cortex.

Artemis arrived just as he was about to leave via the exit hallway, and gave the tall, wiry blonde man a confused look.

"Hello," she greeted, surprised to see a new face this early in the morning.

"Hi," he answered dryly, holding out his hand, "Warren Dutra. I'm the lab's financial attorney."

"We have a financial attorney?" She asked in a small voice.

"Not for much longer," he muttered, before striding down the hall.

She watched him leave, puzzled, before she turned to me with the same innocent, confused look. She then noticed the thick ribbons of pink glitter streaking across the floor, work desks, and walls, like someone had tried to paint the Cortex with shimmering rose-colored tiger stripes.

"What the-"

"There was a metahuman attack yesterday," I clarified for her.

"Right. The time travelers," she responded numbly, stepping over a pile of glitter to reach a desk.

"Time travelers?" I asked, playing dumb.

Yes, _Artemis._ The time travelers.

"Barry and Cisco met a young girl who time-traveled here with another speedster," she explained.

A young girl who time-traveled here with another speedster?

You mean - a girl with tech that could slow down Barry with a single shot of molten glitter? And another speedster? A speedster, who happened to be your son, and my grandson - and looked like my mortal enemy no less, _because you and Barry just won't be able to keep it in your pants?!_

God, if my shoulder still wasn't so sore, and if my timeline hadn't been disoriented, I'd strangle her to death in this very moment.

"Who the hell taped lightning bolts and smiley faces on the lenses off all of our flashlights?" Cisco shouted from his workshop, entering the Cortex. He dropped a pile of lights in front of Artemis, and raised an eyebrow up at her, demanding an explanation.

She stifled a grin, and clicked one of the lights on, shining a beam of light onto the wall, with the jagged bolt-shaped space cutting through the middle. It resembled the emblem on Barry's suit.

"Get it? They're ' _Flash_ ' lights..."

Cisco scowled.

"You think you're cute, or something?" He scoffed gently.

"Maybe?"

He exhaled and gave a single nod. "That actually was pretty cute. Gotta hand it to you for seeing the pun through on that one."

She high-fived him before they embraced each other, and Caitlin stepped out of her medical ward, nervously clearing her throat to get Artemis's attention.

"Hey..." she greeted numbly.

"Well, if it isn't my favorite drug addict," Artemis teased.

Caitlin smiled in guilty fashion and opened up her arms. Artemis rolled her eyes and grinned as she accepted the hug, before she noticed me watching with dread.

"I'm not hugging you," I muttered.

"Good. I didn't want to," she snapped back, before she began stalking towards me, "You and I-"

"Yo, I'ma let you butcher Dr. Wells and all, but what's with the scarf?" Cisco called out, "It's August. It's like, 94 degrees out."

Artemis paled, and a hand caught at the fabric circling her throat, adjusting it. "Oh, it's nothing. I've just got some... mosquito bites. They're really embarrassing."

"Mosquito bites?" Caitlin inquired, instantly pulling out a bottle from her purse, "Here, let me see. Covering them up is only going make the irritation worse, especially in this heat. This stuff'll treat them instantly."

"Caitlin, no-" she protested, backing away from the scientist, bumping right into Cisco.

Artemis yelped as Caitlin took advantage of her vulnerability and yanked the scarf off of her neck to diagnose the bug bites, finding instead several dark blotchy bruises, identical to one another in size and shape, adorned in neat rows down her neck.

Hickeys.

Both women turned a deep shade of red, before Artemis snatched the scarf back and fixed it back over her neck, no doubt uncomfortable with the revelation.

"That's one hell of a nice mosquito you've got there, Van Kleiss," Cisco joked, before he walked away with a surprised smile, shaking his head in disbelief.

I loudly cleared my throat to break the ice, and Artemis turned her attention to me, eyes fixing on me with a cruel glare.

"Dr. Wells. You and I have a few... personal... issues we need to work out. You owe me answers. A lot of them."

I tried to ignore the cold, liquid shiver that shot down my spine at the sound of those words.

"You're fired," I answered immediately, before I could take the words back.

Caitlin made a small squealing sound. Cisco stuck his head out of the doorway of his workshop.

My knuckled turned white as I gripped the armrests of my wheelchair with shaking hands, unable to look her in the face.

She folded her arms over her chest, her presence demanding my attention.

"I can't afford to pay all of you. The lab is going under foreclosure."

"What?" a small, faraway voice whispered.

"Sir, what are you saying?" Caitlin inquired softly.

"Dutra came in this morning to tell me we've officially run out of money. I can't support all of you. We're bankrupt beyond what is considered legally acceptable. The government is shutting us down."

"We'll work for free, then."

"Yeah. The Team sticks together."

"No. You and Cisco get to stay," I answered grimly, finally acknowledging Artemis's fierce scowl, "But _you_ leave. I don't want you here anymore."

The side of her lips tipped up in a cool smirk.

"What? You're not mad?"

"Nope."

"What will you do?"

"Nothing, I'll just take my electron to-"

"Van _Kleiss._ You're under arrest," a third male voice interjected, several footsteps arriving in the Cortex.

"I'm all kinds of lucky today, aren't I?" She muttered to herself, before turning around, "David. What'd I do this time?"

Captain Singh, flanked by Lieutenant Mark Briggs, Detectives Joe, and Eddie all arrived, each dressed in fresh dress suits. Barry lingered in the back of the group, dressed the same, hair combed handsomely to the side.

Singh stepped forward and crossed his arms as he looked down at her. She returned the gesture with a glower that would've sent John Cena crying home to his mother.

"You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you," David warned.

"Oh yeah?" She challenged, "Try me."

Cisco dropped his jaw, and Caitlin paled.

You do _not_ answer an officer, warranting your arrest, with a snarky comeback.

We watched in charged silence as the duo scowled at each other.

David would be _furious._

 _Nobody_ talked back to him and got away with it, especially not a bratty trouble-making physicist. And _nobody_ called him by his first name, not to his face anyway.

He'd be ruthless against her. She'd go straight to jail for whatever she did. Or better - prison. My hands would be clean. I'd be ridden of my burden.

David and Artemis surprised us all by suddenly cracking grins and laughing. David shook his head disapprovingly, before clasping the woman around her shoulders in the quick side hug.

"I swear to God - you are the biggest smartass I have ever met," David complimented, letting go.

"If you ever try to arrest me for real, I'm going to be screwed, because I have no idea whether or not you're joing," Artemis responded, flashing him a friendly smile before she faced the other men, "Please tell me you didn't come all the way out to our humble lab just to crack an inside joke. And, uhh, what's with the suits?"

"There's a law enforcement conference out in the state capital. Proper dress is required," Mark Briggs answered, glancing around curiously at the pink streaks.

"It's more of an over-glorified meeting, really," Eddie continued, frowning at the rose-colored stuff spread out over the floor, "You all been redecorating?"

"Yeah, we're trying to go for a seventies theme," Artemis answered, scrunching her eyebrows, "If it's a law enforcement conference, why are you taking Barry? He's not a cop..."

"It's not like he's going to do work while we're gone, anyway, so why not just bring him with us?" Singh joked.

Artemis threw him a dirty glower again. I knew for a fact she didn't appreciate Singh's constant berating of Barry.

"Anyway, we came here on actual business," Singh began again, facing her in seriousness, "All evidence proves you know who the Flash is."

I nearly coughed from surprise.

She silently studied the Captain for a moment, before she blinked skeptically. "Excuse me?"

"Look, we could go for a formal interrogation and hook you up to a polygraph and all that, but we don't need to do that," Briggs interjected, "We know you better than be super-technical about it."

"Um. The _Flash?_ " She asked, furrowing her eyebrows in mock confusion, "That one metahuman who runs around super fast? Wasn't he called the Red Streak?"

"Look, don't play dumb with me," Singh answered, "I know you have a history with speedsters..."

 _"Accurate_ choice of wording..." Cisco murmured behind me, before Caitlin gently hit him in reprimand.

"You obviously don't know me as well as you think, then," Artemis countered, "I have _no_ affiliations with the Flash whatsoever."

Aside from the fact that you've fallen asleep in his arms twice in a row.

Minor detail...

Eddie opened his mouth to speak, but Singh put his hand up, silencing him. "It's okay. Of course she'd deny contact with him. It's what we'd expect. She's hiding other metahumans too.. But Artemis, you need to understand he can't keep running away from us forever. He's a dangerous super-powered freak, and he's showed up at almost every metahuman showdown in the city."

She shrugged casually. "I'm not saying you're wrong about the Flash, David. I'm just saying you're wrong about me _knowing_ him."

"Look, please don't make us bring you in," Eddie pleaded, "Just... make things easy for us, and admit it. We know you have connections with him."

"Oh, it's more than a connection," Cisco crooned softly, smirking, before I glared at him.

"I won't admit a lie."

"Van Kleiss, when you first arrived in the city on the day that Andrew Thompson attacked and held you hostage, the Flash saved your life," Briggs countered, "Then, when Roger Wahlberg was using his earthquake abilities to destroy Downtown, you came in contact with him again and helped him take Wahlberg down."

"That means nothing. We were both just in the same place at the same time."

"Here's where it gets sketchy," Joe spoke up, forced to play along, "The day Thompson kidnapped you, the second time?Several sources say the Flash was sighted searching through the city for something... or some _one_."

"Joe, who says he was looking for me? Maybe he was looking for Thompson."

"A _ha_. Knew you'd say that," Singh replied, grinning as he and Briggs walked over to the first computer at the main desk, "Hey, can someone help me use this thing, please?"

Caitlin stepped forward and helped Singh turn it on. He signaled with a finger for Artemis to join him behind the desk. I wheeled myself over as well, and Cisco followed up beside Caitlin, the three of us watching nervously.

Singh accessed the police database - little knowing it was hacked into on a daily basis here - and pulled up traffic cam footage. He typed in _Fountain Lane, South End_ , and selected an option from a drop down bar, until he had what he wanted.

On screen, Hartley Rathaway was terrorizing the nighttime street with his sonic wave-emitting gauntlets, and the Flash was failing in his attempt to take him down. Singh fast-forwarded the footage to where a familiar car dared to arrive on the road, and a second hooded figure wielding a large carbine-style gun stepped out of the vehicle.

He paused the video, and looked to Artemis expectantly. "Look me in the face and swear by the name of God that's not you. I've _seen_ you in that jacket, and the car's license plate numbers match up with yours. This person appears to have the same build and weight as you do, Van Kleiss. I know it's you here."

"Congrats. You must be _great_ at Guess Who."

He was unimpressed by her witty response.

"I don't get it," she objected carelessly, "So _what?_ I stopped a bad guy, and the Flash happened to be there..."

Singh hit the play button on the screen, and fast-forwarded to where Artemis was trying to resuscitate Barry, weeping. When he came to, the two embraced, and Singh paused the film again with another suspicious look on his face. "You're hugging him."

"So?"

"That means you two have a bond."

"I wouldn't necessarily call it that. I was just extremely relieved to find out he was alive. Haven't you ever performed CPR on a dying person, David? Wouldn't you feel relieved if that person _lived?"_

"You had the Flash vulnerable, and you _didn't_ unmask him?" Eddie interrupted.

"No," Artemis responded firmly, "He didn't deserve that kind of disrespect in my eyes. He was trying to save the city from a threat, and he put his own life on the line. Eddie, if that was _you_ , or any of your men, or any other person who was doing that, I'd have done the same. I was not giving the Flash any special treatment."

"How did you know where to find the Flash, in the first place?" Barry questioned, finally speaking up.

"Who said I was looking for the Flash?" Artemis retorted to him, "I just wanted for the soundwaves to stop. They interfered with my cell signal."

Barry and Joe cracked tiny smiles at each other because of Artemis's joke, smiles that immediately vanished after Briggs turned to face them.

"Gentlemen, have you ever considered asking _Iris_ these kinds of questions?" I asked, irritated, "Iris has been searching for information regarding the Flash since he first appeared. She's a _professional_ investigative journalist. My _physicist_ here has only been in the city for a mere three months."

"Iris's father, boyfriend and stepbrother are all members of the CCPD," Singh explained, "She wouldn't dare hide that kind of information from any of them."

"Then, associatively, I assure you that you have no reason to doubt Artemis either."

Artemis gave me a quizzical glance, before Briggs took her attention again.

"So anyway, let's talk about this gun you're holding here," he accosted, pointing a finger on the screen, "What is it? It took down a metahuman in a single go. _Our_ firearms don't do that. Even the best of our rifles are nothing more than toothpicks to some metahumans."

"Oh... Well..." Artemis began, her tone uncertain, "I _kind_ of discovered a subatomic particle that vibrates at an exponentially faster rate than its normal counterpart, and used its synthetic nuclear form to create weapons?"

Briggs, Singh and Eddie all looked at Artemis as if she just said something insane.

Which she did.

She pursed her lips before she went to her lab, and returned with a large shielded steel case, long and rectangular in shape. She unhitched the locked clasps, and brought out the dangerous weapon.

"I managed to analyze the different types of brain waves, and calibrated a nuclear force that could counter that," she described, placing the gun in Briggs's hands, "You shoot this at _any_ being with a brain, they're paralyzed and unconscious for as long as their bodies can handle. You're promised a good half-hour of paralysis, at _least."_

Briggs nearly dropped the carbine in astonishment. A moment of silence passed, before the men burst into a cacophony of questions.

"You _lie_ -"

"How did you build something like that?"

"If it can actually do that, that's _wicked_ cool-"

"Will it work on _anything_?"

"Are there other guns like this?"

"Can I keep it?"

"All else aside," Singh announced, his voice silencing the others, "I want to know more about this weapon. You said you built it?"

"Yes."

"And... do you have permission to build such a firearm?" He asked cautiously, "Legal certification? You need a license to do this, Artemis. Because, if you don't, I will unfortunately be forced to arrest you by law."

She paled, and gently shook her head no. "I - can I call my lawyer, or something?"

No, you can't call your lawyer. He went _missing_ , you dolt.

"How much did this thing cost you to make?" Briggs inquired curiously, ignoring her question.

"The total rounded out to about $7,600," she admitted.

"You spent almost $8,000 on a _gun_?" Eddie asked incredulously.

"It's not a normal firearm, Eddie," she admitted, "Each and every bit of it is hand-crafted. I built the tritium nuclear generators inside it myself, along with the quantum helix and the Tesla fusion chambers. You can't find devices like that on the market. And there's a lot of precision involved, and money goes into testing and research-"

"We'll take it."

Artemis paused. "I - gentlemen, it's not for _sale_."

Singh and Briggs threw each other questioning looks, no doubt reaching a tacit agreement.

"Artemis, our metahuman task force is _helpless_ against threats. We're no better armed than our SWAT team. Ensuring the city's safety is becoming more and more dangerous, and we need something like this. You built a game-changer here."

"We'll take ten of them."

"Umm... I appreciate the support, but how will you... pay... for all of these?" She asked, rubbing her neck, "If you want _ten_ of them, it'll take around $80 thousand dollars to create them... Not to mention the fact that I'm supposedly breaking the law by building them?"

"There's going to be a representative from the Department of Homeland Security at the conference today," Eddie stated, "We know a guy on the inside who can get you a grant."

"A grant?" Caitlin asked.

"Yeah, to support you so you can support _us._ The DHS is well aware of our fallout metahuman crisis. They're _just_ as worried about the metahuman problem as you are."

"A grant would do us a _lot_ of good," Cisco stated, "We're out of funds, and we need some serious support to get back up and running."

"We'll drop your charges and I'll work with the licensing agency to give you legal rights ASAP if you agree to it, Artemis," Briggs stated hopefully.

 _What?_

This was almost too good to be true...

There was no _way_ she could turn this down.

An $80,000 grant - it wasn't as large as other grants I'd received, but it would be enough. I'd just have to show proof of it to Warren Dutra, and my lab would be saved. _Nobody_ could shut down my lab once we had a financial foundation started. We'd only go up from there.

 _Accept, Van Kleiss._

 _Say yes to it._

Artemis gave me an apologetic smile, before she faced the police with it.

"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but you'll have to commission Mercury Labs for it."

 _"What?"_ I barked.

"Huh? Why?" Singh asked, worried.

"Stephen Hawking here has unfortunately terminated me from my position as an engineer here," she answered, faking woe, "I was hoping Dr. Tina McGee would take me in. I've heard good things about her, and no doubt she's heard of me by now as well."

"You've been fired?" Barry asked quietly, looking away from his girlfriend to me, with an unforgiving glare.

He'd _never_ let me live this down.

"We can work out our issues," I assured quickly, silently begging Artemis to concede, "Our differences might not _necessarily_ require your termination."

"Are you sure?" Artemis asked softly, "I mean, you really _don't_ seem to enjoy having me around, and you've told me on several occasions that it's better for me not to be involved in your work-"

"I _love_ having you around," I grumbled, forcing a smile with gritted teeth, "It's _always_ nice having you involved in my work."

The policemen watched uncomfortably.

"I mean, _jeez,_ Dr. Wells, nobody's forcing you to keep me here if you don't want to," she answered, playing with a curly strand of hair, "You'll manage just fine with Caitlin and Cisco, like you said earlier. And I'm sure Mercury Labs won't turn me down... They'd love a grant from the Department of Homeland Security."

A fine attempt at manipulation.

Forcing me to comply with her, in front of the police, no less.

And if I didn't give in, my Lab would eventually be shut down, while my rival lab would only thrive, once Artemis patented her electron too.

"No. Stay," I responded, keeping my voice kind, "You won't have the same kind of freedom at Mercury, that I give you here, when it comes to research."

"Oh," she murmured, a pleased victory reigning in her eyes, "Well, if you _insist._ "

She turned and gave a so-be-it nod to the police. "I guess I'm in."

"Good choice," Briggs asserted, as the two shook hands.

"Because if you refused, we'd actually _have_ to arrest you," Singh laughed, taking his turn at shaking her hand.

"You're hilarious," Artemis answered dryly.

"I...wasn't kidding," he conceded.

"Mmm... Pretty sure your CSI wouldn't be too happy with that. He seems to be kind of attached to me."

Barry raised an inquisitive eyebrow at her, and smiled.

"You're not above the law," Eddie teased.

Artemis gave him an unimpressed look that seemed to ask _Who gave you the permission to speak?_

"Alright, Van Kleiss, we'll see you when we get back, hopefully, and we'll bring good news," Briggs stated, turning to leave, "Gentlemen, let's move out. The traffic's not going to like us at this hour, and we don't want to be late."

Briggs and Singh left, and the other three men stayed behind.

Joe and Barry grinned and approached Artemis.

"Never thought I'd _ever_ have to say this to you, but I'm glad you didn't get yourself thrown in jail," Joe declared, embracing Artemis proudly, "And for the record, that gun was pretty cool."

"Thanks, Joe," she replied, and he left, giving her one last smile.

"Yeah, Barry, how'd a sweet guy like you end up with someone like Artemis for a girlfriend?" Eddie joked, "She's tough as nails."

He clearly wasn't getting the memo that he was no longer welcome in our Cortex.

Barry focused a sad smile on her.

"What is it with you and these run-ins with the Flash?" He asked, worried.

"Run-ins. Flashlights. Speed dials," Cisco muttered, pouring himself a mug of coffee from the other table, "These two are disappointing."

Artemis shrugged.

Barry wore a worried pout. "What am I supposed to do if you keep getting in trouble with vigilante superheroes?"

"Personally?" Eddie interrupted, dulling Barry's smile, "I think the Flash might actually have a crush on her..."

Barry's smile melted off completely, and Artemis rolled her eyes. The man was a _pro_ at ruining conversations between other couples... _  
_

"Eddie, that's... pretty insane," Artemis intoned, lacing her fingers through Barry's, "The Flash and I have never spoken or seen each other for more than a few minutes."

"No, but it definitely seems as if he shows you special treatment, like he used to with Iris," Eddie advised, "Barry, trust me. You don't want some metahuman hitting on your girl. The Flash's a creep, the way he'll show up in the middle of the night to flirt. Don't know _how_ Iris couldn't see it as anything but platonic. And Artemis, you gotta be careful. He has some pretty... violent...tendencies..."

No doubt, he was talking about the incident where Barry had attacked Eddie while under the influence of the psychological effects of the Rainbow Raider, which was several months ago, before I had let Artemis on the team. Barry had liked Iris, then.

Barry tipped her chin up with his index finger. "Is the Flash aware that you're a taken woman, Artemis?"

"Don't know. He should be, though."

Eddie cleared his throat.

"Eddie, what the hell do you _want?"_ She questioned.

"I... just wanted to ask if I could take the gun with us? To show at the conference? It could really back up our case with the representat-"

"No."

"Oh - alright then..." and Detective Thawne left as well, finally leaving the five of us in privacy.

Barry immediately focused a scowl on me the second the door was heard shut. "You _fired_ her?"

"In case you weren't listening, I hired her back," I grumbled.

"Yeah, but only because there's _money_ involved this time," Barry argued, "You can't keep treating her like this."

"Woah," Artemis protested, placing a hand at his chest to push him back, "Back up. I told you last night that I didn't want you upset about this. Back. _Up."_

"Do you have any idea how much stress you're putting her through?" He asked, ignoring her altogether as he narrowed his eyes at me.

His volume was calm enough, but there was anger in his tone. "Dr. Wells, with all due respect, I am not just going to sit back and tolerate you harassing her like this-"

"Barry-"

"If I find out you're treating her like garbage again-"

"-llen-"

"That you're _not_ appreciating her and her hard work-"

"-are you even listening to me?"

"Then I'm _never_ going to be able to forgive you."

"Alright, DiCaprio, that's enou-"

"You just _can't_ seem to understand what she's worth to this lab, and you're _always_ trying to outcast her-"

"You can drop the mic now, dude-"

"And I _hate_ it-"

"Barry, for the love of _god_ , don't overdo it-"

"And I don't want to see or hear about it again, okay?" I'm worried about-"

She placed her hand at his mouth, effectively quieting him. "Aand you overdid it. Thank you, Barry, but you'll be late for your little conference. And you're always late."

He relented, frowned at me, before bowing his head to kiss her nose. He bid Caitlin and Cisco goodbye and turned to leave.

"Oh, and Barry?" Artemis asked, halting him in his tracks.

"Yeah?" He asked, facing her from the doorway.

"Do you want me to quickly take your temperature, before you go?"

"No? Why?"

"I don't know... You just looked pretty hot in that suit, that's all."

Cisco spewed his drink, much to Caitlin's irritation.

Barry grinned and grabbed her in a fervid kiss.

A growl was born in my throat, and I coughed out loud on purpose, forcing them to break apart, both glowering at me.

"What? Don't look at me like that. I'm not the one acting like a disgusting teenager."

"Continue this later?" Barry asked quickly, reluctantly dropping his arms from around her.

 _Eugh_. I was going to be nauseous.

"Affirmed," she replied with a nod, and he turned to leave, throwing her a dashing wink before he disappeared behind the doorway.

Caitlin smiled. "You both are sweet."

"Thanks," Artemis murmured, carefully sweeping a piece of hair out of the way before fixing her scarf again. She faced me with a cool smirk, gestured an arm towards my office.

"Now, sir, may I have a word with you, regarding how I expect to be treated from here on out?" She asked, her tone almost threatening.

Any resentment I felt towards her wove into fear, and I reluctantly complied, following her into my office.

She was proving to be the bane of my existence by every passing second.

* * *

 **[Barry's POV]**

 **[Several Hours Later]**

"Knock, knock?" A careful voice behind me intoned.

I paused my work and turned to find Artemis entering my criminology lab, setting her satchel down at one of my tables.

"Oh, hey, you," I quipped, quickly removing my latex gloves before I walked over to embrace her, "How'd the thing with Wells go?"

She looked up at me with a dark grin that probably meant it didn't go well... for _Dr. Wells_...

"Suffice to say he'll keep his mouth shut if he has any problems with me from now on," she admitted with a wink.

"I don't blame him for thinking you're evil," I confessed, dropping a kiss onto her forehead, "You _do_ have a ruthless streak."

"Speaking of streaks, how did our little Red Streak enjoy his visit to the state capital?" She asked.

"Oh, well, he was bored out of his mind, and probably should have stayed in Central City, because he has four metahuman cases due early tomorrow, along with their respective forensic analyses," I responded sheepishly.

I really didn't appreciate Singh forcing me to go with him to the conference, but there was no avoiding his orders. And, at 11 at night, while most of the patrol was probably asleep, I got to go home and change out of that suit into a sweater and jeans, and return to my forensics lab to finish up the work that - oh, _right_ \- Lake was demanding by 7 a. m. sharp tomorrow morning.

Her brows furrowed.

"Singh really is a bitch to you, isn't he?" She murmured, stroking my cheek.

"It's nothing I'm not already used to..."

"Barry, that _doesn't_ mean it's fair of him to-"

"Look, are we just having a role-reversed version of last night's argument?" I interjected gently, carefully winding a piece of her curly hair around my finger, "Because we _both_ know how _that_ went down."

Her cheeks immediately flushed a shade of dark pink, and she looked away, uselessly trying to repress a shy smile. "All we did was... make out... a little more than usual... It's not that big of a deal."

"Make out a little more than usual, along with a few other details?" I asked softly, adjusting the scarf 'round her ever so slightly, my fingers softly brushing against the bite marks.

Her face flushed more deeply. "It's not like we _did_ anything else, so to speak."

"Oh, don't worry. I know exactly what else you wanted to do."

"I hate you," she mumbled, still blushing like mad.

"I know you do," I murmured, before cupping the back of her neck with one hand and gently tilting her chin up with the other for a well-deserved kiss.

We were so wrapped up in our little moment that we both failed to hear the awkward scuffle of footsteps entering my lab, followed by quick knocks at the door.

I turned red from embarrassment at the sight of Captain Singh, standing at the door, just as uncomfortable.

"Why do our bosses never let us make out?" Artemis hissed.

"Because Wells hates you, and Singh hates me," I murmured, before breaking away from her and clearing my throat, "Uhh, hi, Captain."

"Yeah, sorry guys," Singh coughed shyly, "I, uhh, didn't know-"

"No, no-"

"It's perfectly fine-"

Artemis and I continued to stutter apologies, until Singh's eyes steeled and he raised an eyebrow, pretty much ordering us to stop looking like nerds.

"Van Kleiss, I actually came to talk to you, if it's okay with you..."

"You _knew_ I was here?" She asked in disbelief.

Singh scratched at the back of his head. "Uhh, yeah? You're not as stealthy as you think you are?"

She grimaced. "Um. How much of our conversation did you hear?"

 _Oh shoot_ , I realized. _She had called me the Red Streak_... And, well, even _hushed_ voices echoed in a long hall such as my lab...

Dear god, _David_ , why'd you have to bust in on us _now_?!

"I didn't hear anything," he asserted, taking a seat at my coroning table, "Now we have more important matters to attend to, if you don't mind?"

"Oh, sure," Artemis answered, sitting across from him. Realizing I was no longer needed, I slipped on a fresh pair of gloves and returned to analyzing the bloodstain patterns from this week's metahuman murder. Their conversation didn't go unheard, though.

"So... I talked to the people at the state's firearm licensing department..."

"Yeah?"

"And, well, the fact that you have a legal record, albeit from a long time ago, meant I couldn't get you the proper forms. You'd need to have a plea from your lawyer, or a legal guardian in order for that to be waived."

"Um... I, uhh, don't have a lawyer? Or a legal guardian? Or a lawyer who happens to be a legal guardian?" She asked, "Can't I just get approval from the court, or something?"

"I'm... actually not too sure about that. You could try?"

"Wouldn't you be able to lease the forms to Dr. Wells? Since I'm working under his laboratory?"

"I can't, unless it's Wells who'll be buildings the guns. Which he won't..."

"Couldn't the FBI just run a background check on me? I'm clean."

Singh stopped for a moment, before he spoke up again. "A background check might actually work, if we work out a few other details to go with it. Anyway, fill out what you can, send the rest over to Lake when you're done, and I'll let the guy from the DHS know about it. You'll have your license, as well as your financial grant, in no time."

"Sweet," she answered, "I'll get these done ASAP. Your metahuman task force will be armed and safely prepped in a matter of weeks, on one condition."

"And what would _that_ be?" Singh scoffed.

"You swear my inventions won't be used to hurt the Flash."

I almost knocked over a glass bottle of an acidic reagent.

"Listen, I don't get what your beef is with metas, or why you're so attached to them," Singh scoffed, "It's not your place to decide-"

"Fine, then," she asserted, "Stick to your little toothpick rifles. I hope they treat you well against the next 10 foot brick monster that shows up. In the mean time, I'll keep my metaguns to myself."

Singh narrowed his eyes. "You do realize we could barge into your lab at any given time with a search warrant, arrest you for illegally building firearms, confiscate your weapons and have the military produce copies of them _for_ us?"

Artemis crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow, smiling. "Oh? I doubt the military has seen the hyper electron before."

"The hyper-what?"

"It's a little subatomic particle I derived from a pre-existing element. _I'm_ the only one who knows how to create it, and _I'm_ the only one who knows how to mold it into the proper quanta that will paralyze your metahumans," she explained, "You lock me up, and I'll never tell you _anything_."

"Oh? The military has pretty efficient ways of getting information out of people that-"

"That are cruel, unusual, and most likely illegal and torturous?" Artemis concluded, slitting her eyes, "David, are you threatening a civilian in your own police station?"

He scowled. "Look here, you little _punk_. _You're_ the one openly defying and disrespecting authority by telling us we can't target the Flash. You're in no position to tell me, the _captain_ , what to do. I could file charges against you _right_ this moment."

Hello. Superhero on standby in case these two started WWIII...

Artemis took off her glasses, and set them on the table, leaning forward. "Listen, I've agreed to build you your weapons, and arm your task force. I'm willing to do everything you ask of me. My one request is that you leave the Flash out of this. Why can't you agree to that?"

He studied her harshly. "You'd have to give me a good reason why. If you're not affiliated with him, and don't know who he is, and have no connections to him whatsoever, what reasons do you have to fear his safety?"

She exhaled. "He's saved my life twice, David. I don't want to be the reason why he gets hurt. That's _it."_

Singh sniffed. He stayed silent for a second more, before he spoke up. "Fine. I can respect you paying a debt. But know one thing: if the Flash steps even an inch out of line, he's toast."

"Don't why you're telling me that," she muttered, "It's not like I can relay the message to him, or something."

They both continued to give each other icy, remorseless looks, before slowly cracking up, then bursting into full laughter.

"Jeez, that was actually kind of intense!"

"Damn, kid, you almost had me scared for a minute there."

They... weren't going to kill each other? My girlfriend wasn't going to prison? All that arguing had been... a mere ruse, an inside joke?

Yup. These two were hopeless.

"So, to confirm, we have a deal?" Artemis asked kindly, holding her hand out, "I'll build you weapons, you keep them away from our little so-called hero?"

"Sure, sure... To be honest, I don't mind a guy running around in a costume, trying to help others, if it helps him sleep better at night... And if he stays in his place."

"Great. I'll get the licensing forms done as fast as I can," Artemis stated, smiling. "Thanks for not throwing my butt in jail, David.

He grinned back at her.

"Well, we here at the force really do appreciate what you're doing for us. It's pretty mind-blowing, seeing a kid your age doing the things you do. If there's anything else we can do to help you, let me know."

Artemis smiled warmly, before something set in her eyes.

"Actually, David, there was something I needed to talk to you about," she admitted solemnly, rising from her chair, "Mind if we discuss this in privacy?"

"Huh? Oh, of course."

Then the two left, leaving me even more confused. What could Artemis possible want to converse with Singh about that needed privacy?

It's none of my business, I presumed, pushing the thought out of my mind, and continuing my tests.

By the time Artemis returned ten or so minutes later, I had _finally_ gotten through the first half of the four tests.

Speeding through these wouldn't help, when it came to forensics. Several criminology-related tests are time-sensitive, and need slow, careful precision.

"Since when are you and the Captain on a first-name basis?" I retorted.

"Since his husband invited me over for dinner last week," she explained, before she gave me a worried look, "Are you just going to stand there and work all night?"

"I'll be done in... just a few hours."

"And how exactly many hours is considered a few?" She asked, wrapped her arms around my sides

"Umm... Two or three..."

She sighed, clearly annoyed, and rested her head against my shoulder. "Is this a dielectrophoresis test?"

"Yeah," I responded, surprised, "How'd you know?"

"You do know you're not the only who knows how to study blood, right?"

I cracked a shy grin. "Hey, thanks for asking the police to, you know, _not_ target me with your metaguns. The police have been trying to hunt me down for quite some time now. The extra insurance - it means a lot to me."

"Nonsense," she replied, placing a peck at my jaw, "I'd rather let the lab go broke and lose my job than let my inventions hurt you. And for the record, when I _do_ release the guns to the metahuman task force, I'm going to figure out a way to make sure that the beams are calibrated so they won't affect you, if you ever get caught in a crossfire. Because I don't trust any of police here, save for Joe, and I don't want those freaks coming after you, especially if you're injured. So.. the guns the taskforce get _won't_ hurt you."

"I still can't figure out what I did to deserve you."

She smiled fully, and planted a kiss on my cheek again, hugging me around the shoulders. "So, what have we got here?"

"Oh. Four sets of evidence samples collected from a homicide scene. Two murderers have been identified. Felipe Garzonas. Serial rapist, who's been avoiding the cops since his first victim was found years ago, in Jump City. The other guy is Mark Mardon, brother of Clyde Mardon. The two brothers were bank robbers before the particle accelerator gave Clyde the ability to control poisonous mist, but he's in the Pipeline. So far, all I have is that Mark Mardon is working with Garzonas in some way. I'm trying to figure out where they're hiding, and if they have metahuman abilities as well."

Missing homicidal bank robbers and serial rapists usually don't make great conversation starters with your girlfriend... but nowadays, sharing information with her regarding my cases was actually pretty normal, even if it wasn't allowed.

"That's... Your job is scary, dude...How many tests have you done so far?"

"I've finished two. There's still two left. Then, when I finish, I get to write wonderful reports on all of them, and if I'm not done with it all by tomorrow morning, Lake gets to yell at me."

"Oh, don't worry," she conceded coolly, with a flip of her dark hair, "Nobody's going to yell at you."

"Yeah, _that'll_ be the day," I scoffed. She smiled and hugged my arm.

"Hey, you guilt-tripped _my_ sourpuss boss, I guilt-trip yours," she declared with a confident smile.

"Oh my god... Was _that_ what you went to talk to Singh about alone?!"

She grinned.

" _Ar_ temis!"

"Shush. Now, why don't you go take a quick nap, or something? You seem pretty tired, to be honest," she stated, "I'll watch over the third test for you."

"I can't just go take a _nap_. I have so much work to d-"

"Fifteen minutes of rest won't kill you. I'll wake you up at midnight _."_

"Promise?"

"I will. I swear."

"Don't try anything, Van Kleiss."

She gave me a small smirk that was either very innocent, or very dubious, but nodded.

"See you in fifteen minutes, Barry."

I reluctantly complied and went over to my desk, and sat down, hiding my head in my arms.

I wasn't tired.

I'd probably get back up in five minutes, then send Artemis home so she could sleep.

I yawned.

Yeah, I wasn't sleepy at all...

###

When I lifted my head again, I was washed over with sudden grogginess and delirious confusion.

The digital clock by my computer read _4:07 a.m._

Oh, god.

Artemis didn't wake me up.

Just as I was about to break into panic over all of my unfinished work, I noticed that my lab equipment had been neatly put away in its cabinets, and a stack of papers that wasn't there before was waiting before me.

Four sets of metahuman blood tests, each written in lengthy detail, neatly organized by subcategories, stapled in the top left corner.

 _Exactly_ how Singh wanted them.

Then - more papers, set off to the side. Research notes, on genetics and electron states, the nucleic wavelengths in particle interactions, and thousands of messy calculations. A laptop that wasn't mine was showing an error code for some kind of nuclear reaction program.

Then I noticed that she was still here, arms crossed, silently staring at the corkboard I had hidden underneath a map of Central City.

"Hey," I murmured, yawning as I crossed over to her, "You weren't supposed to do my homework for me."

"Oops," she answered, facing me with a small guilty smile.

"What're you still doing here? It's 4 in the morning."

"Couldn't sleep," she answered with a sigh, facing the board again.

We'd added more pieces of evidence to it, once we'd found out her mother was murdered in the same way, on the same night. Red yarn spanned across the board, pinned where the two murders had coincidences. Both murders used 8-inch kitchen knives, not belonging to the victims. Both victims died immediately. Both scenarios involved lightning. Both children present were swept away, out to safety. Both took place on the same night.

"The man in the yellow suit gave you your powers."

"What?"

"The man in the yellow suit. He's responsible for you having speed, Barry..."

"Artemis... that's-"

"In the time since the particle accelerator blew up, no two metahumans have been found with identical powers. Each metahuman is different, and their abilities derive from where they were or what they were doing, as well as their mental psyche. Hasn't it ever seemed kind of...I don't know, statistically _impossible_... to you, that your mother was murdered by a man who ran faster than lightning, then one day you woke up from a 9-month nap, and _BAM_ , you coincidentally had the same exact powers as him? Then he showed up and threatened you? Barry, he wants this. He wants you to be the Flash. This is what he's wanted the entire goddamn time."

A charged moment of silence passed. I wasn't able to process what she had just told me.

"Barry - if you had gotten struck by _lightning_ alone, you would've died. If you had gotten hit by the dark _matter_ alone, chances are you would've gained some very _different_ abilities because of you were working with forensic chemicals. But neither of those scenarios happened, because you got hit by three _very_ precise elements: lightning, the _exact_ set of electrified chemicals and radioactive dark matter. And - look at it this way: If the man in the yellow suit had _never_ killed your mother and wrongfully went your father to prison, you probably wouldn't have had a motivation to go into criminology. But because he _did_ , you were in this lab in that exact moment. He wanted you _here_ when the accelerator blew up, he wanted you to hold onto those chains when that lightning hit, and he did it _all_ so you'd have his powers."

A tightness formed in my chest.

Caitlin had told me that every aspect of my survival and recovery had been extremely impossible, and that my case was unlike any other, that I shouldn't have existed, even as a metahuman.

I had always thought it was because I was lucky. But, if what Artemis was saying was true, I wasn't _lucky_ at all...

"You were manipulated into that exact situation. We're puppets, Barry. I don't know who he is, or how he's doing this, but I get the feeling we're both doing exactly what he wants. He _wants_ you as the Flash."

"What does he want from you, then?"

"Beats me. All I've been doing since I got here is working on synthesizing the hyper electron and working on genetic transmutation to undo the dark matter's effects. But I _do_ know for a fact that I wouldn't be standing here if my mother had been killed..."

"Artemis... You're saying the man in yellow is responsible for the particle accelerator malfunctioning. The particle accelerator was created by Dr. Wells, Cisco, Caitlin, Hartley and Ronnie. It _can't_ be any of them."

"I'm not saying he's one of them. Maybe he slipped down there while everyone was away, and kicked a few bolts, mind the exaggeration. Cisco and Wells both said that the accelerator was supposed to function perfectly. There's no way they'd let a raw particle travel in a faulty pipeline, knowing how dangerous it was. He did it while they weren't looking."

I picked at my lip, deep in thought.

She was right. The Reverse Flash _had_ to have been behind the malfunction. He must've been at STAR Labs sometime before the accelerator was turned on.

Our previous encounters with him revealed he wanted me dead. Weak. Broken. Defeated.

And he was a cold-hearted murderer...

Hurting an entire city of people for one selfish reason didn't seem out of his scope.

"Do... certain aspects of our relationship ever scare you? Like, the fact that two people whose mothers were killed in _very_ rare and _very_ identical ways... just randomly met each other? Two people, out of the entire _world_? Not that I'm complaining, but... again, this is statistically impossible. I _work_ at the lab that supports you as a hero. That _can't_ be a coincidence."

"I get what you're saying... Artemis, do you remember the Reverse Flash's first warning to you?"

"How could I forget?" She scoffed, "He warned me to stay away from you, or he'd kill you."

"And he told me the same exact thing, about you-"

"Like he specifically didn't want us to be together, in _any_ way."

"But after he showed up the third time, we confessed everything. We initiated a relationship, knowing very well that it went against his warnings-"

"And he didn't do anything. We haven't seen him since that night in the South with Andrew, so many weeks ago," Artemis stated, "My guess is that he didn't want us together at first. But, something must have gone wrong, or he wouldn't have come back for us. It's not like we defied him after the first time, when he promised bloody murder. But the second time around, we did disobey him, and he just... hasn't shown up to stop us."

"You're saying he's letting us stay in a relationship, rather than try and set us apart again?"

"It's not like we didn't like each other before. The only difference is that _after_ our second encounter with him, you told me you were the Flash..."

"So now you're saying he _wanted_ us in a relationship, but only if you knew I was the Flash?" I asked skeptically, "It's not like I wanted to hide the secret from you from the beginning - I knew telling you would be critical to solving the murders. Dr. _Wells_ was forcing me to keep the truth from you."

"I - to be honest, it makes sense, kind of. You were there, at both of our mother's murders. Or at least, you will be, somehow. And you and I were the children he seemingly targeted, so many years ago..."

I sighed, scowling at the corkboard. "This is so _baffling_..."

She exhaled deeply, and sat on the desk, eyes staring at nothing in particular like they did when she was trying to figure something out.

"Do you believe in fate?" She finally asked softly.

"I don't know..." I answered, shrugging, " _Should_ I?"

"I don't know either. But, assuming this man is the reason why you became the Flash, from the murders in the very beginning, all the way to the lightning bolt hitting you, and me, meeting you, and discovering science my parents were killed for - I don't know. But... I think he's trying to control us, albeit at a distance. He's slowly, but surely, guiding us towards some sick prophecy kind of shit... And that unnerves me..."

"So what do we do?" I asked, trying not to shiver, "Break up, give up on everything we're doing so far, and wait to see if he tries to do something about it?"

"That... that actually might _work."_

"Artemis, did you just _agree_ to stage a break-up with me for the sake of luring in our childhood nemesis?" I asked incredulously.

"Sadly, I did."

"Alright, I think you need to go home and get some rest, and that all this CSI stuff has been getting into your head," I joked, no longer hiding how shaken I was by our conversation, "Thank you for writing my reports and all, but-"

Her unimpressed glare shut me up.

She rolled her eyes and sighed again, muttered a curse while gently pulling at my ear in annoyance, before planting a soft kiss at my temple and taking my hand.

"I wouldn't break up with you, but at this point, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to free us from this monster's treachery once and for all. I _hate_ him affecting our lives like this, influencing our decisions, taking away the ones we love for the sake of controlling us," she muttered.

She got up from the table, and pulled the screen down over the corkboard, signifying that this conversation was over.

The look in her dark eyes was icy and unforgiving.

"Barry," she concluded, her tone ruthless, "I'm going to find this bastard, and I am going to make him pay for _everything_ he's done. He _will_ lose to us."


	21. The Influx Chamber

**Major thank-you to my beta - PoeFryeKenway, and lots and lots of love to those of you who offered to help out! (ArtChaser, BlueBonfire - I'm looking right at you two ;D )**

 **This story would be nothing without them, and without all of you who read and review! I greatly appreciate it! :)**

* * *

 **[Barry's POV]**

I took Artemis up on her little offer to move in with her, and I didn't regret it.

Living together went amazingly, and we adjusted to each other's company quickly, almost as if it was natural. Artemis bought more than enough food to last me through the week, knowing I'd never eat my required amount in public. I brought all of my things in and we shared her room together; she didn't seem to mind having me around at all, and I in turn tried to make sure I was lifting my own weight around, though, really, we were both meticulous neat freaks, so household chores never did seem to be an issue. In the mornings, we'd see each other off to work, meet up for lunch every once in a while, mess around at the Lab when I'd come in, go home and cuddle, occasionally turning things up as far as my abilities (or lack thereof) would allow.

We'd rant to each other nonstop about science, laughed at inside jokes, spent a generous amount of time hugging and making out, and playfully argued over who got the TV remote. I threatened to tickle her if she ever got stubborn about something, and she really wasn't able to fight back, which kind of worked out. We cooked for each other, spoiled each other in every way we could, and almost every second we were together was spent smiling

Iris was a tad concerned we were moving too fast, as she had dated Eddie for over a year now and still didn't move in together, whereas Artemis and I had jumped the gun almost immediately. We told her we were happy, and didn't see why we had to wait if we personally didn't have any objections.

Eddie told us we were lucky to have each other, but we were insane. We agreed with him.

Joe assured the two of us he didn't mind me leaving home, so long as we visited from time to time, and we told him that he had better visit us as well, or we'd lose our heads and would make sure he lost his too.

At the Lab, Cisco thought it was adorable, and that _we_ became more adorable; Caitlin gave us her approving smile, and Dr. Wells groaned and complained that we'd only annoy him more with our "senseless doozy-eyed immaturity."

Ultimately, it was obvious to anyone that Artemis and I had the happiest co-habitational, abstinent relationship in history.

Save for the tiny face that I was a superhero, that is.

If I returned from a mission with so much as a bruise or a gash, she worried.

If I ever winced while bandaged, she'd drop everything to make sure I was okay and that I wasn't hurting anywhere.

And, oh boy, when I returned from a battle actually hammered or with mangled, broken limbs, she wouldn't rest for a millisecond until I was fully healed.

Knowing that she worried about me, even if it was unnecessary at times, gnawed at me from the insides, and sometimes it made me feel like a burden to her, and I worried if it was affecting her feelings for me - that she saw me as weak.

"Barry, that will never be true," she stated softly, sitting at the other end of the couch while carefully redoing the brace over my severely torn calf muscle. I took her hand when she finished setting the splint, and she looked up at me with sad brown eyes.

"It's just - I will always fully support your decisions, and I'll always admire the things you do. But... I don't want to see you killed," she murmured, holding the back of my hand against her cheek, "I don't want to be standing on the sidelines knowing that you might face something you can't go up against."

"You're worried I'll lose," I answered, defeat settling through me, "You don't believe in me..."

And for a split second - I was able to understand why she'd think that way. I was fast, but I'd lost track of how many times I'd come back to the Lab needing Caitlin to stitch me up.

Sometimes, it required two or three shots at taking down certain metas, and given my reputation as a superhero, I was always expected to show up to take them down - meaning my enemies were always prepared to fight me when I'd arrive.

I, on the other hand, was facing new surprises, armed with nothing more than good reflexes, a handy ability to heal, a red friction-proof suit and voices guiding me through a satellite comm system.

If it wasn't for the Team, I'd have been poisoned the first time I went up against a meta, back during the days of Clyde Mardon.

The public was being lied to. They didn't believe in a superhero. They believed in a group of scientists dedicated to secretly backing an amateur metahuman with a strong desire to keep people safe.

"Earth to Barry?" Artemis called out, wearing a tiny smile, "Quit sulking."

"Huh? What - oh, I wasn't sulking..."

"Yes, you were. You accused me of thinking you were a loser, and then you did that thing where you quietly stare off into nothing, feeling sorry about yourself," she chided, moving up to sit closer to me. She hugged me tightly around my shoulders, and my insides thawed, warmed by the gesture.

She cupped my face in her hands, and brought me closer so I was looking her in the eyes.

"Look here. Nobody likes crazy, murderous metahumans. I agree with you that if we have the ability to stop them, and keep people safe, then we should. You've taken up that mantle upon yourself, and in doing so, you've saved this city from so much carnage and chaos. It's because of you that the rest of us even stand a fighting chance. And - be honest with me - Barry, how can you doubt yourself, knowing you can run at Mach 3?"

I cracked a guilty smile, and she slowly stroked my cheek.

"I'm never going to stop you from running out and saving the day. I'm proud of the things you've done, and I can't tell you how glad I feel that I'm able to support and be with someone who has the drive to do the things you do. I love the Flash," she stated, before kissing the crest of my forehead.

Something heavy and sad settled in her eyes. "But I love Barry Allen more. And how am I supposed to love Barry Allen, if the Flash gets him killed?"

"You're being overdramatic," I mumbled with a lazy grin, "I'm not gonna die. I've survived getting hit by lightning, and I fight metahumans every other day, and always win. The universe wants me to live."

"Oh, I'm the one being overdramatic?" she retorted sassily, arching an eyebrow. She began counting things off on her fingers, "Let's see, metahuman #1 at 10, metahuman #2 right after, dodging bullets by noon the next day, escaping a mob gang shoot-out after lunch in Keystone, criminal biker gang back in Central City before dinner - we certainly can't forget the Central City criminal biker gang, you know - followed by the mysterious break-in at the jewelry store, then the shooting in Englewood, and last but not least, the drug heist-"

I groaned out of annoyance, and her smile grew brighter in response.

"You said the universe wants you to live?" She joked, "Sure sounds to me like it's trying to drive you cray."

"You're trying to drive me cray," I muttered automatically, pulling her forward for a much-needed kiss. She giggled, and after we broke apart, she grabbed the remote and switched the TV on, snuggling up behind me, my head against her stomach.

"If I wanted to drive you insane, I'd force you to watch CSI: Miami, knowing very well you won't be able to move for the next hour or so, until you heal."

It didn't take an expert CSI to figure out she was making me watch the silly show to distract me from my injury.

I whined anyway.

"Artemis, no, I hate that show-"

"Too bad," she remarked, pulling me in against her chest, "You willingly put yourself in danger over a guy who ran off with a couple diamonds. This is your punishment."

And I groaned again, pointing out every single error of the forensics in the overly dramatized crime show, growing more and more exasperated as the CSIs and detectives on screen magically solved cases with senseless evidence whereas Joe, Eddie, myself and others in the real world saw a grittier and more grueling reality.

"Oh, for the love of god - how on earth do you find fully-intact fingerprints off of a mirror without the use of a physical developing liquid?!" I complained, "Forensics is all about the use of reagents! You can't just eye a crime scene and immediately find out everything you need! This is nonsense!"

Artemis couldn't stop chuckling over how offended I was getting, and kept telling me I was adorable when I was angry.

Truthfully, knowing that I could make her laugh and smile like that was everything I needed. The two of us _belonged_ together.

I wound an arm around her neck, and pulled her in for a gentle kiss.

I'd be okay...

 _We'd_ be okay...

A metahuman who could suck energy out of living things proved us wrong.

A middle aged Lancy Perkins, soon dubbed Thermothief by Cisco, had been on an intense murder spree for a good week or so. The particle accelerator mangled her internal organ systems, leaving her unable to physically sustain herself with food or water, but coincidentally, gave her the power to suck the body heat right out of plants, animals, people simply by placing her hands on them - thus granting her the energy she needed to live.

She'd then kidnap her victims and "feed" on them, until they withered away and died, leaving them as nothing more than cold, colorless, dried up husks of skin and bones.

A good year or so of kidnapping pets and young children from time to time allowed her to hone in on her powers, and work them telepathically, making her almost unstoppable.

They had warned me against going in without a plan, had begged me not to be foolish, that I was asking for my funeral. I got overconfident, told them I'd be too fast for her to focus her abilities on me, that she needed to be stopped before she hurt anyone else.

But of course, the second I found her hideout and got within fifty feet of her - of the woman with dry, gray skin, frizzy black hair that grew in long clumps, rumpled dark clothing and the hollow, soulless eyes of a serial killer - I felt _weak._

Instantly, worried voices began to protest in my comm systems as the woman in front of me smiled victoriously. All energy left me, taking a fluid, white form as it evaporated out and off of me, and flew towards her, revitalizing her. I fell to my knees, frozen in place, as my soul tangibly left my body.

"Well, now, Flash," Thermothief crooned, closing her eyes and inhaling, "I haven't felt warmth like this since the Tri-City heat wave, back in '09."

Dr. Wells shouted something I couldn't make out. Voices that belonged to Artemis and Cisco yelled responses. Caitlin's voice asked a hurried question. Joe was there too.

I needed to say something. I needed help. I needed to think of something and get myself out of this mess.

I couldn't.

I couldn't do anything, other than fall forward, onto my knees, my arms frozen at my sides.

I couldn't feel anything except for cold. I couldn't hear anything anymore. No more voices in the comms. Nothing, but hard, triumphant feminine laughter.

Time no longer existed.

 _Nothing_ existed, other than the murderous cold, swirling around inside me, consuming every inch of my body.

"Hey, Mother Gothel!" A familiar male voice shouted from somewhere in the warehouse.

Eyes barely open, all I managed to make out was Perkins' hazy form swiveling her head around frantically.

"Who's there?!" She shrieked, becoming riddled with panic.

 _"Now_ , Cisco!"

Thermothief tensed, as a fat white, powerful beam hit her, and Cisco emerged from behind a structure, relentlessly firing a metagun at her, the force taking her out almost immediately.

Another figure emerged, and ran forward, striking Lancy Perkins in the back of her head with a heavy iron crowbar. Crowbar and villain both falling to the ground, Cisco darted forward to bind, gag and blindfold a paralyzed metahuman, and Artemis ran towards me, covered me with something that felt like a very warm heat blanket, before holding my torso up almost too easily.

"Cisco!" She shouted, panicking, and I felt the presence of two bodies materialize on either side of me, hoisting me up and taking me somewhere, presumably a car, where a violent fatigue demanded me to fall asleep. Or maybe fall unconscious. I couldn't tell which.

When I came to, I was lying down on a surface I recognized to be the bed in STAR Labs' medical bay, blinding lights burning down into my eyes. An oxygen mask was clamped over my mouth, facilitating oxygen into my dried lungs.

Voices were yelling around me.

"She's denatured and damaged too many of his proteins! I - I don't know if he'll be able to heal from that-"

"Don't give me that _shit_ ," Artemis growled, her tone threatening, "You're _going_ to find a way to save him."

"I'm trying," Caitlin shouted back, "You need to lower your tone! I'm doing the best I can!"

"Guys, his heart rate isn't-" Cisco tried to warn.

"He's almost clean out of hemoglobin. The oxygen delivery isn't working fast enough," Dr. Wells interjected, panicking, "His systems are not built to handle anemia - we _cannot_ have an iron-deficient speedster."

"Bring him to my lab," Artemis ordered.

"What?!"

"My lab. _Now_. I know what to do."

Barely holding onto my consciousness, I felt myself being moved. I was being transported elsewhere, though I didn't remember how or why. I heard several things rattle, as if objects were being cleared off and thrown hastily onto the floor, and I was placed onto a harder surface - probably a desk or a table.

Footsteps scurried around, running.

"What are you doing?" Wells's voice asked.

"I've got unaltered samples of his blood with me; I can transmutate copies of it with the original ecfranite so Caitlin can run a blood transfusion with it."

The two women muttered to each other as they worked together.

Blood was pounding in my head, like a bomb begging to go off.

"Hurry! He's flatlining!" Joe shouted.

"Keep him revived, then!"

Wells, Cisco and Joe worked ruthlessly to keep me warm, and Caitlin and Artemis yelled orders at each other, determined to work together to save me.

I felt needles and tubes get stabbed into my arm, and heard more arguing and demanding, until the numbing pressure from within became so forceful, so intense that I lost control over my own conscience and blacked out again.

###

I heard the voices before I saw them.

"If Artemis hadn't been able to conjure the fresh samples of oxygenated blood on time, we don't know what we'd have done," Dr. Wells stated, "He'll heal."

Joe sighed.

"What'd you do with the woman? Perkins?"

"Unfortunately, she's in one of the accelerator chambers," Artemis's voice described, "She feeds off of warmth and living energy. The best we could do now is hook her up to a plasma-induced light source for heat...but it won't last."

"So... she'll just... _die_?" Caitlin asked quietly.

"Yeah."

A moment of silence passed. Everyone froze, once they heard her answer.

"And... you're okay with that?"

"Why wouldn't I be?" Artemis scoffed, "She's killed 16 children and 8 adults, and countless dogs, cats, and other innocent animals. She fed on them like some kind of heat-thirsty vampire. If Cisco and I had arrived one second later, I don't even want to _think_ about what would've happened to Barry. After everything she's done, she deserves her death. In fact, we're showing her mercy by letting her live out her days peacefully in the proton cavities."

"Artemis... if this is a matter of avenging Barry," Dr. Wells began, "It's-"

"It's not about revenge. Barry's fine. He wouldn't want that, anyway," Artemis's voice scorned, "This is a matter of stopping a murderer, who needs to kill in order to survive. I'm doing what needs to be done to keep others safe."

"Really?" Joe asked, "Are you sure this isn't about revenge, Artemis?"

"Joe-"

"I've been a detective for many a year. I'm hardwired to be able to tell when people are lying," he interrupted solemnly, "I've also been carrying a gun around with me since I began on the force. Trust me - I understand what it means to shoot, to kill, to keep others safe, but... The trigger should be your last resort, the farthest thing on your mind. You're doing good work here. Don't let it become a bloodbath."

"And Artemis, killing a killer doesn't make the world safer," Dr. Wells stressed.

"I appreciate the wisdom, but I don't need it," she answered, "I don't want to kill this woman, but keeping her alive is means letting others die. This is a special case."

"We know," Dr. Wells assured, "It's just..."

"You don't seem particularly _concerned_ that you're about to let someone die..."

"Call it what you want," Artemis muttered, "I'm not going to let her hurt people anymo-"

"What happened to your arm?" Caitlin asked quietly.

"Huh?"

"Your arm," Cisco repeated, "You're hiding something."

"Oh, this? It's nothing. Just a... small burn. I just - I just... hurt myself while cooking-"

"Lift your sleeve," Dr. Wells ordered calmly..

At this point, I willed myself to open my eyes. I was lying on the bed in Caitlin's lab. A catheter was hooked into my bicep, and two large pouches of blood was hanging from a stand. A blood transfusion.

Wells and Joe had their backs to me, and were facing Artemis, Cisco and Caitlin. Sure enough, Artemis's arms were crossed, her arms hidden in the sleeves of an oversized jacket. Caitlin quickly noticed me, but the spotlight was on Artemis now, not me.

"Did you miss the part where I said I've been trained to detect lies?" Joe asked softly, frowning.

"Artemis... What happened to your arm?" Caitlin pressed again, putting her hand on Artemis's shoulder.

"Van Kleiss," Dr. Wells asserted, his tone unforgiving, "Lift. Your sleeve."

She scowled, before she sighed. She carefully rolled up the sleeve of her jacket, revealing a forearm covered almost entirely in thick white, red and black burns, horribly webbed over delicate skin.

"I was looking for Ronnie... And I found him."

Caitlin widened her eyes.

"When?"

"Earlier today. I... I had an idea about how I could help him."

Joe exhaled deeply and looked away, only to find me watching the conversation with unblinking eyes. Artemis tensed upon seeing me, and immediately fixed her sleeve back.

"Not so fast," Caitlin scolded, taking Artemis by the good arm, "That needs to be treated. And we need to talk."

She grabbed a few bottles of salve and a large roll of bandages from her counter with one hand, leading Artemis away with the other, ignoring the latter's protests.

Wells and Cisco immediately noticed I was awake, and persisted on looking after me, which was more or less unnecessary at this point. The blood transfusion was almost complete, and the weariness wasn't there in my bones anymore. On any other day, I'd have convinced them I was fine and they'd have let me be, but this wasn't one of those days. Caitlin and Artemis returned after a long while, her arm newly bandaged.

Caitlin joined Wells and Cisco in padding and prodding me, and Artemis stood next to Joe, a scowl set upon her mouth.

After an hour or so of Caitlin's fussing (and Wells's and Cisco's attempts to help her), the three of them finally left, leaving me alone with Joe and Artemis for the first time all evening.

I slowly rose from the bed. Artemis glared at me.

No doubt she was pissed at me. I'd gone in after a very dangerous metahuman by myself, not bothering to make a plan. If it hadn't been for her and Cisco, I'd probably be a cold, lifeless shell of a former human being.

Then again, she was just as stupid. She purposely went looking for Ronnie. She was lucky the only thing that got burned was her arm.

I refused to make eye contact with her.

Joe cleared his throat, sensing the tension in the air. "You two clearly have a lot to say to each other... But... Today's been a rough day for you both. Try to get some rest, and call me if you need anything. And... stop with the stupid metahuman shit. I am not looking forward to collecting any more bodies for a homicide case."

Artemis and I both muttered/murmured hasty apologies.

"And, kid, what on _earth_ is that giant thing you're building in your lab?" He inquired.

"What thing?" Artemis responded softly.

"That - that giant machine you covered with the white tarp. In your lab. What is it?"

She stared at the floor. "You'll find out, soon enough."

"Oh... okay then?" Joe conceded, before he left as well.

Minutes passed, and Artemis and I stood frozen where we were, unable to make sense of our own disappointment.

Her scowl softened, and I noticed that tears had been brimming her eyes.

"We should go home..." she whispered, turning away.

"Okay," I answered numbly.

Silently, we recovered our belongings from the Lab, and she drove us home. We quietly entered the apartment complex, trudged up the four flights of stairs to her apartment. No one spoke a word.

There was a heaviness in my chest, and in the air between us. Not from our physical fatigue, or exhaustion, or pain.

From mental stress.

She had been silently crying the entire time.

I wasn't able to look away from the white bandages peeking out from underneath her jacket's sleeve.

She quietly shut the door behind us, did her best to ignore whatever storm of emotions raged under her skin.

She couldn't tune it out much longer. There was nothing either of us could focus on now, other than our costly mistakes today.

"Say it."

"What?" She murmured.

"You've got something on your mind. Holding it in is pointless."

"Barry-"

I frowned, and went to the kitchen to get some water. She quietly followed in after me, hugging her forearm.

"You still don't get it, do you?" I asked, handing her a glass.

"I never asked for this," she answered softly, taking the tiniest sip, "I never asked for any of this..."

"Never asked for what?" I questioned, crossing my arms, "Never asked Ronnie Raymond to give you a second degree burn? Or never asked Caitlin to bandage it up?"

She sniffled. "Yeah, like _you're_ any better. You could've fucking died. How many times are you going to give me a heart attack like that?"

"You know there's no avoiding that," I muttered.

"Oh, there's _plenty_ avoiding that. For one, you can stop acting like it's your duty, and your duty alone," she countered, "Two, how about you think of a plan before you go in?"

"I had to do this alone. Nobody else was to be endangered..."

"Yeah, but then you took the fall. _You_ were the one who was endangered. If Cisco and I hadn't jumped in, you'd have been dead, and we'd have found ourselves with an unstoppable meta. So what's the point, then?" She asked, "Do we just let metahumans continue to do this to you? To _us?_ Are you going to keep going in and risking your life? You can't keep letting this stuff happen to you."

"Look, you're not supposed to be putting yourself in harm's way, either. You and Cisco weren't supposed to go in after me-"

"Don't give me that nonsense. You're the Flash. You have enemies. You're going to engage in things that'll get you hurt," she seethed, "If you think I'm going to sit back and watch you get mauled to death, then you're very _very_ wrong about me."

I pressed my eyes shut and sighed deeply, leaned against the counter.

"Artemis, don't be foolish," I grumbled, "You can't afford to think that way."

"I don't think you have the right to tell me how to think anymore," she declared, scowling. She crossed her arms and stood next to me.

I looked over at her. She had her hood drawn halfway over her head, but that didn't stop the messy black curls from pouring down her shoulders. A stubborn, silent anger raged in her eyes behind her glasses, and she was wearing the slightest pout.

"As stupid as you may be, you're pretty hot when you're trying to intimidate me."

"Don't change the topic," she ordered defiantly.

"I'm serious."

"So am I," she snapped.

"Fine," I scoffed, "How's your arm, then?"

"Never been better," she answered sarcastically, "How's your entire body?"

"Pretty decent, considering I was a dead body a couple hours ago. Then my crazy girlfriend saved my life by wiring me up with fake blood."

She reluctantly cracked a tiny smile. A finger finally wiped away at her eyes, and she titled, leaning against my side. I put my arm over her and rubbed her back.

"Look, you idiot. Don't do stuff like that. You don't have to fight every battle," she mumbled, her voice muffled in my shirt, "It's like Joe said. No more dead bodies. Please. You can't let this happen to you all the time. You have so much to live for."

I kissed the top of her head, and she hugged me closer. Her tears pressed against my shoulder.

"Artemis... I know what I have to live for. I know exactly what I'm doing," I murmured, stroking her cheek, "You'll just have to trust me."

Tears persistently glittered behind her glasses. I fished out a tissue from a nearby Kleenex box, and carefully patted her eyes with it, before locking her tightly in my arms.

She looked up at me with uncertainty, and I instinctively lowered my head to give her a deep, reassuring kiss.

When we broke away a good five or so seconds later, she loosely hooked her arms around me and buried her face in the curve of my neck.

"Well, then..." I murmured, delicately stroking her hair, "Now was supposed to be the part where we go to our room and cuddle and kiss each other till we fall asleep, but we can just stand out here and do nothing instead, if that's what you preferred."

She squeaked something in protest, pulling away almost instantly, and blushed deeply as I scooped her up.

I intercepted her mouth again with mine, carrying her to our bedroom.

"You and I are hopeless," she whispered later, touching her nose to mine as we lay next to each other.

"We'll figure something out," I promised, entwining our fingers together. She tipped her jaw forward, meeting me for one last forgiving kiss as she gingerly nipped our lips together, before tucking my head underneath her chin.

"You need a break," she whispered. I sighed as I wrapped my arms around her stomach.

She was right, I thought.

Even the Flash deserved a break from time to time.

###

That night, I was momentarily awoken by the sound of her wincing in pain, before she readjusted herself, careful with her bandaged arm.

"Artemis - are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," she promised, affirming her words with a kiss to my nose, "Go back to sleep."

I mumbled something insensible and pulled her in against me, unaware of the fact that she had purposely woken up.

In my absent-minded, sleepy state, I had failed to notice that I had pulled her in by the knees, not her torso, and in doing so, had stopped her from leaving.

She responded by placing my head in her lap, soothingly caressing my hair in a slow, soothing and deliberate effort to put me back to sleep.

It was working.

Sooner or later, my body was once again cherishing the softness of the bed, my head comfortably resting on her thighs. My brain became devoid of thoughts and emotions, and my breathing became even, deep and slow.

She bent down, placing a single, sad kiss at my temple.

"I'm sorry, Barry. I do trust you, but I love you too much to let you keep doing this to yourself. I can't put up with this anymore. I'm taking matters into my own hands from here on out."

###

I jarred awake.

I was alone in bed.

Panicking, I jumped out of bed and called her name, before speeding around the dark apartment.

She wasn't anywhere to be found.

Neither were her car keys.

She had left, and when I called her phone, it rang in the bedroom.

That's odd.

She never forgot her phone.

She left it behind on purpose.

Or _worse-_

I charged out of the apartment into the night, not stopping until I was in Cisco's place, in his room.

He was innocent hugging his pillow, suckling his thumb like a baby.

"Dude! Cisco! Get up!" I hissed, shaking his shoulder, "Hey! Cisco!"

He murmured something about not wanting to go to school.

Groaning, I darted out of his room, returning with a cup of water that was emptied over his head.

He shrieked, and shot straight up, screaming.

"Calm down! It's just me!" I urged.

He widened bloodshot eyes at me in disbelief, hair plastered to his face.

"Barry?! Bro. What the _hell?!"_ He grumbled drowsily.

"It's Artemis. She's _gone."_

"Gone? Gone where?" He asked.

"If I knew, would I be here?"

"No, like, kidnapped gone, or-"

"I have no idea! Cisco, I'm scared."

Realization settled in his eyes, and he frantically leapt out of bed, grabbing his laptop.

"Flipping hell, Artemarry's reaching the wrong kinda heights together," he muttered, typing quickly into the screen.

"She didn't take her phone," I explained, sitting down beside him, "But I think she took her car."

"Thanks for the intel..." He answered, "I can trace her if she's in the city."

"What - you placed a tracking device in her Civic?"

"No, you _quirk_ ," he flared, hacking into the CCPD's traffic database, "I can follow her along in the traffic cams."

Cisco typed and zoomed in on one of the frames, following the little gray Civic along in the cameras, and on the map, until it stopped.

"Jeez, bro. You gotta keep an eye on your girl or she'll... _wind up at the Central City Grand Hotel alone in the middle of the night?"_ He gasped, paling, "She's _cheating_ on you! God, I thought she was better than this! Meeting up with people at hotels - I can't even right now, I'm so sorry. I was going to name your kids, and everything, and she doesn't even have her head in the game and-"

She left to meet up with someone behind my back.

I had known she was frustrated with me but... but I had never thought she'd seek compensation for the lack of satisfaction on my part from someone else.

My chest filled with a heavy, disappointed anger, before I noticed something odd. Instead of entering the hotel, Artemis cut her path straight away from the entrance, and ducked into the alley beside it.

"You weirdo, she's not cheating on me," I answered, cool relief washing through me, "She didn't even enter the damn hotel. See? She _does_ love me."

"So... where'd she go, then?" Cisco responded.

Oh.

"Right."

I grabbed Cisco by the shoulders, and whisked him out of his apartment.

###

"Your girlfriend seriously needs to appreciate the gift of sleep," Cisco muttered, as we scoured the alley she had ducked into. The night was still cool, crisp and dark, and Cisco and I were hunting down the alley behind the hotel with flashlights - sorry, _'Flash'_ lights.

"Honestly, Barry, don't the two of you ever-"

"Quiet!" I hissed, plastering my hand over his mouth.

Did I hear voices, speaking to each other somewhere back here?

Cisco pulled my hand away. " _Hey_. You _don't_ get to wake me up at 4 in the morning, force me to play _Skyfall_ with you and your little sneak of a girlfriend, then tell me to shut up."

"Look, we don't know where she is," I pleaded, shining the light into the dark, "And I have no idea what she's up to, either. What reason would she have to be out at this hour?"

"If it helps, this isn't the first time she's snuck out behind your back," Cisco offered.

I nearly tripped.

"What?!"

"Yeah. She goes back to the lab almost every night. She's busy working on-"

"You tell me this _now?!"_

"Uhh, yeah... Sorry, dude."

"Wait, how do you even know this?!" I ordered.

"Because. I stay up at the Lab too. Doing work, enhancing tech, repairs and maintenance with your suit, that kinda thing. She _knows_ I know. She asked me not to tell you because you'd worry."

I dropped the flashlight in shock.

"How...long has she been doing this?" I asked, unsure of how to react.

"Since she found out you were the Flash? So, two, three months? She's busy building some giant machine thing that's supposed to make your life easier. Please don't tell her I told you."

"I've... I've been living with her for almost a month now, and you're telling me she's been leaving me every night?"

Cisco paused.

"Well, yeah. I mean, guess it just goes to show you're not giving her much reason to stay the whole night?"

I felt heat rise in my cheeks. I picked up the flashlight and turned around immediately so he wouldn't see my embarrassment.

"I am _not_ talking about this with you," I muttered, walking down the alley.

"You know your relationship better than I do," he replied, following behind me, "What are you doing wrong?"

"I don't know... She... gets really sensitive when I'm injured..."

"That's not what I meant. What are you _doing_ wrong?"

"I - nothing! We're both really happy, and-"

"Oh my lord. Do you _actually_ finish off too fast?"

"Cisco!"

"I'm serious. Girls hate that stuff."

"How would you know?" I grumbled, "You're just as much of a virgin as I am."

"Virgin?" He repeated in disbelief, "You mean you and Artemis haven't-"

"No."

"Well, see, that's your problem! Why aren't you-"

"Because I can't."

"You can't?!"

"No. I... The speed makes things... awkward," I answered hurriedly, grimacing, "We are ending this conversation _now_. I am not discussing this with you."

"Does Caitlin know? She might be able to figure something out..."

"Cisco, can we focus on finding my girlfriend before we discus-"

Suddenly, a loud cry was heard, coming from the end of the alley. Forgetting everything I had gone through only hours earlier with Lancy Perkins, I ran towards it.

There was a male voice, crying behind a wooden door. A hand grabbed my wrist before I could kick it open. Cisco put his finger to his mouth, signaling for silence, and put his ear to the door. I followed suit. The voice continued its pained wails.

"-rtemis, he can't just die," a meek voice pleaded.

 _"Die?!"_ I whispered.

Cisco wore a look of betrayal on his face.

"Shut up, and let me do my work," Artemis muttered inside.

"No, how can you be so cold-hearted and inconsiderate about killing the greatest fighter in existence?" the voice sobbed, "I thought you loved him! He's so funny, and his _hair_ \- and he's literally so handso-"

"Get over it. It's not that big of a deal. If he has to die, then who cares? It's not important at the current moment, you fool."

"Barry..." Cisco murmured anxiously, tugging at my sleeve.

 _"I_ care! His life is going to end! So many people love him, and he's so young too!" the other voice begged, "He - he didn't even have any kids yet! Why must the world be so cruel?! Oh, this is _horrible!_ I can't live, knowing you don't care about this, about him!"

"Wait... I recognize that voice," I suddenly murmured.

"You're ignoring the fact that your girlfriend wants to kill you?"

"The entire city is going to crumble without him, Artemis! My OTP - gone! Just _gone!_ How am I supposed to live, knowing he's a goner?! Who will protect the people, and stand for their freedom?"

"Andrew _Marcus_ Thompson, I swear to god, it's just a stupid TV show!" Artemis snarled, "Jet is just a side character! You know Kataang is endgame, anyway."

"A- _ha!"_ I shouted at Cisco's face, gently shoving him before I threw the door open, barging inside, "I knew you weren't going to kill me!"

Artemis froze, and looked up at me from the desk she was working at. A pair of safety goggles were strapped over her glasses, and the sleeves of her lab coat were rolled up, unveiling her bandaged forearm. Small inventions and devices were sprawled across the floor, along with millions of papers and pencils. The desk was lined with test tubes filled with various liquids, and catalyst reactors, microscopes, induction chambers and many tablet monitors.

Across the room, Andrew Thompson was lying across a new-looking couch, sniffling as he watched something on an iPad.

"Hi, Barry," he wept.

"Hi... _Barry_...?" Artemis murmured, slitting her eyes at me.

"Hey, _Artemis."_

"Someone tell me what the hell is going on," Cisco stated in exasperation, stepping into the basement behind me.

"I'm on Book Two of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Long Feng just killed Jet, and he told Katara he'd be okay, but Toph sensed that he was lying," Andrew explained, wiping away at his translucent tears, "And now, him and the rest of the Freedom Fighters are going to die in Lake Laogai, and Zuko's being forced to choose his own destiny, and Appa, and Iroh - and ugh, the _feels_ , man."

"Avatar. That's some tough stuff right there, pal," Cisco cajoled, "Do you watch Game of Thrones?"

"I just finished Season Two, actually, yeah."

"I... might have given Andrew our Netflix password," Artemis conceded uncomfortably, removing her goggles, "Hope that's okay with you."

I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Clearly me giving him our Netflix info is the least of your concerns at the moment," she murmured nervously, "I can explain."

"Wait - are you the Smoke Ghost?" Cisco asked, studying the other metahuman in the room.

Andrew pulled his attention away from the screen in his hands and checked out his newest acquaintance. "The name's Andrew, actually. Are you Cisco?"

"I _am_ Cisco," Cisco blazoned proudly, grinning, "Wow, you're a lot less _The Grudge_ , and a lot more _Casper, The Friendly Ghost_. I thought you'd be some creepy kidnapper."

"Yeah, I earned a bit of a rep, I guess," Andrew begrudged, "But dude. I didn't mean to kidnap Artemis. I honestly just needed her help. I'm just a kid. A kid with no life, too much tech, and a borrowed Netflix, hiding out in an abandoned hotel basement. Oh, and with creepy superpowers."

"That's actually my life story, more or less," Cisco agreed, nodding, "Minus the superpowers. And the kidnapping part. Barry would strangle me if I did anything like that. What the heck - Artemis would strangle me if I did anything. I... actually have no reason to kidnap Artemis. I don't know why I keep repeating that."

"So, you know all about Artemis and Barry?" Andrew asked, gesturing towards me and Artemis, the two of us awkwardly watching them.

"Oh, I _invented_ Artemis and Barry."

Artemis cleared her throat, anxiously biting her lower lip. "Barry, what are you doing here? You need to be resting. You're not well."

"Right back at you. Care to tell me why you're sneaking around at night behind my back?"

"I was worried about you, and Andrew-"

"Don't worry about me. _I'm_ worried about Barry chewing your head off," Andrew responded, sitting up, "I _told_ you sneaking out at night wasn't a good idea. Barry - please don't kill me. This was her idea. I had nothing at all to do with it."

Artemis threw him a dirty glower that read _You're not helping_.

Cisco walked over and sat down beside him. "This is going to be something worth watching. They're adorable when they argue. Got any popcorn, or something, by any chance? I wanna get comfortable."

"Yeah, I do, actually..."

I ignored them, and sighed, looking at my guilty girlfriend. "Artemis, what is all this?"

"I needed a test subject to transmutate metahuman DNA back into its human form," she admitted, "Andrew volunteered."

"Excuse me?"

"For our metahuman crisis. I can't sit back watching all these metahumans hurt innocent people. Hurt _you_. I'm so close to finding a solution," she explained, hope in her voice, "And - and I felt bad, leaving Andrew alone. So I spotted him a couple of things, so he'd be more comfortable."

Sure enough, there was an old TV set in the room, along with a shelf of books. A Wi-Fi adapter was hooked up in the wall, as was one of the hotel's coffee machines.

Yeah, the hotel basement was a much better hideout than that room in the slums...

"Shorty here is great," Andrew added, both him and Cisco munching on Cheesies, "She visits, makes sure I'm okay, tells me about her day, injects poisonous electrostatic isotopes into my arms and neck from time to time. She's the best."

"You call her Shorty?" Cisco scoffed, "You have nothing else to occupy your mind with, and _Shorty's_ the best you can come up with?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were doing this?" I asked, rubbing my neck, "Why do all of this behind my back?"

"Because," she answered, focusing her attention onto the device in her hands, "You're overprotective and worrisome. If you knew, you wouldn't let me spend all this time. I'm on a tight schedule here, Barry."

"I have every right to be overprotective and worrisome. You left in the middle of the night, without your phone, not telling me anything."

Cisco and Andrew snickered and whispered to each other, wearing cheesy grins.

"Don't mind us."

"Carry on."

"I'm naming your first daughter Francesca, by the way," Cisco answered, winking.

Artemis arched an eyebrow up at me, ignoring them. "Yeah, we literally had this same exact argument a few hours ago, and I'm going to tell you the same exact answer you told me."

"And what would that be?"

"That I know exactly what I'm doing, and you'll have to trust me," she asserted, "You said we'd figure this out. That's what I'm doing. In fact, that's what I've _been_ doing for more than a month now."

I sighed and joined Cisco and Andrew at the couch, plopping down in between them.

"She's a mystery, isn't she?" Andrew crooned, offering me a Cheesie.

"No. She's a stubborn little nerd who's determined to make my life hell."

"Andrew," Artemis commanded, "Get over here. I perfected the spectral magnitudes in these voltaics. I don't have all night."

"Cheerful one, aren't you?" he answered dryly, as he went over to her.

"Hey, if we're done here, can I, like, crash?" Cisco asked, yawning, "Barry here woke me up and forced me to come with him, and I don't mean to be disrespectful, but some of us actually _need_ beauty sleep..."

Artemis tossed him her car keys. "My car's in the adjacent lot. Go home. We'll see you at work. Sorry for waking you."

Cisco winked at me, before facing Artemis and Andrew. "Well, Mr. Thompson..."

"Mr. Ramon..."

"It's nice to meet a fellow Artemarry shipper who also is a fan of the Targaryens."

"It is indeed."

"Are you two flirting?" Artemis interjected, wearing a sweet smirk.

"What-"

"No!"

"Of course not! Jeez!"

"We're just-"

"You know what? _Bye!_ " And Cisco left.

I took his departure as an opportunity to lie down on the couch, which I had to myself now.

"Barry, you should leave too," Artemis suggested, still seated at the desk with Andrew, "I'll be here a while."

"Not going anywhere till you do," I mumbled, covering my eyes with my arm.

"Oh... Alright then..."

I heard a slapping sound, and out of the corner of my eye, saw Artemis giving me a cheesy, admiring smile, and Andrew rubbing his arm.

"Dude, why'd you hit me? You just put a shot in there!"

"Just - shush," she whispered, dismissing him with a wave of her hand.

"What?"

"Just look at him. God, he's so cute! I still flip out over the fact that I exist on the same planet as him."

"Wow, then you're clearly not ready to learn that you two live together," Andrew retorted, before he smiled warmly, "You really are dedicated to him, if you give up sleep every night for this science stuff."

"A few hours of sleep are nothing in comparison to his life," she responded quietly, "I won't stop until I find my answers."

"We're getting close. You've almost got it figured out."

"But seriously. Look at his jawline - it's so _perfect._ And his hair and his face and his arms and literally everything - someone needs to go back in time and thank his parents for creating him."

"Artemis, you do know I can hear you, right?" I remarked, lifting my arm from my face, unable to repress a smile.

Andrew chuckled at the flushed, red embarrassment on her face.

###

So, that was the first and last time I got to see her working with Andrew Thompson.

One day, after I was finished with my work at the CCPD, I headed over to STAR Labs as usual, only to find the entire Cortex empty.

There was nobody there.

Funny.

Then, behind me, Cisco ran in, dressed in a khaki-colored suit with a navy tie, his hair tied back in a neat ponytail.

"Bro," was all I was capable of saying, bewildered by his unusual getup.

"Bro," he responded, raising an eyebrow.

"What's with the suit?"

"What do you mean 'what's with the suit?' Artemis is revealing her super cool new thing to the city government today. Didn't you get the memo?" He asked, running into his workshop to retrieve a box full of weird gizmos, "We were wondering where you were."

Say what?

I vaguely remembered Singh and Eddie discussing something about visiting STAR Labs today, but didn't pay much attention to it. Joe had been muttering to himself about picking up his suit from the dry cleaner's, and Iris had texted me asking about it as well.

We hadn't had many operations this week. Wells and Artemis were busy discussing particle interaction parabolas, and everyone had seemed a bit busier than usual, but I had assumed it was just the typical Team Flash nerd zone. I didn't work at the lab. How was I supposed to know we had been planning a reveal?

"Go home, get dressed in something nice, then meet us in the indoor convention hall," Cisco advised, "There are a lot of people coming in today."

"We have an indoor convention hall?" I asked, surprised.

"Uhh, _yeah?!"_ Cisco answered, walking towards the entrance hall, "It's that one gigantic room by the outdoor convention hall? Where Wells revealed the particle accelerator? Is this your first time here, or something?"

I made a whelping sound, and left - at normal speed.

Sure enough, I had missed the dozens of cars - exotic and expensive ones - packed in our usually empty parking lot. Hordes of people - dressed in business clothes - were pouring into the side entrance of the Lab, and sky lights were shining into the dark clouds above.

Once I was sure I was out of sight, I raced home and changed into the suit I had worn to the capital conference a few weeks ago, and returned, blending in with the crowd. The people had mixed feelings about being here, I learned.

"Don't know why we're here. The last time STAR Labs had a reveal, it completely backfired. We can't trust them. We're asking for another explosion."

"-rticle accelerator exploded. This is supposed to 'fix' that, or something."

"How do you fix nuclear fallout?"

"-at's the new scientist's name?" Another person asked, "Caitlin Snow?"

"No, she's the other one. This one's named Audrey, or something. Graduated from MIT this past June. Heard she's the next Elon Musk."

Someone tapped me on the shoulder. I turned around and saw a short blonde woman in a purple dress, her shiny hair tied back in a curly ponytail, and eyes shining warmly behind her glasses.

"Hi Barry!" She quipped, holding her arms open for a hug.

"Felicity!" I exclaimed, wrapping my arms around her shorter frame, "Hey! I, uhh, had no idea you'd be here?"

"Hey, Barry!" Ray Palmer chirped, grinning as he appeared beside her, "We were wondering when you'd show up!"

"Um... Is Oliver here too?" I asked awkwardly, "What are you both here for?"

Their smiles froze, and they looked at each other nervously.

"Oliver is..." Ray attempted.

"Occupied," Felicity answered a little too quickly, "He sends his best regards, and apologizes for not being here."

"Ray! Felicity!" Caitlin called out behind me, weaving through the mass of people in a black dress, "It's so good to see you!"

Caitlin greeted them both with hugs before facing me, disappointed, "Barry, where were you?"

I shrugged. "Could someone please tell me what's going on?"

"Artemis has found a solution to our metahuman problem," Dr. Wells declared, wheeling in to join us, wearing a white - _white!?_ \- dress shirt with a gray tie, "I've invited several potential investors and politicians to come see. We need as much support as we can get, and Artemis's new invention is very promising, you'll see."

Cisco returned to us as well, completing the circle. "Does anyone actually have any idea where our little Molly Hooper is, by the way? I lost her, like, an hour ago."

"I introduced her to the mayor about half an hour or so ago?" Wells responded with a half-shrug.

"There's Artemis!" Caitlin quipped, pointing away from us.

Sure enough, Artemis could be seen, wearing a neat, sleeveless green dress, red heels, and her hair rolled back in an elegant bun, smiling as she spoke with Dr. Tina McGee and a few other rich-looking people whom I guessed were scientists or politicians.

Caitlin made her way over to them, apologized to the older figures, and led Artemis back to us.

"Artemis, these are a few of our friends from Starling City," Caitlin described, smiling, "Dr. Raymond Palmer, CEO of Palmer Technologies, and Felicity Smoak, one of the greatest computer scientists of this century. Guys, this is Artemis. She's our newest physicist."

"Hi!" Artemis replied, holding out her hand to shake theirs, "It's great to meet you both!"

Felicity grinned at her. "Barry, you never told us your girlfriend was-"

"Artemis! There you are!" Iris interjected, appearing before us with her recorder and camera in hand, "Bridges told me he'd murder me if I didn't get any of this. So, smile. Everyone."

"Oh, uhh, okay," and the seven of us stood in line, smiling awkwardly as Iris snapped a picture of us, before Eddie and another woman called her over and she too had to leave.

"Artemis, what on earth is happening here?" I asked, laughing, "Why did I not know about any of this?"

She gave me a sheepish smile. "What do you mean? You know I've been working day and night for this. Dr. Wells wanted to see to it that everyone was there when my hard work paid off."

"Verily, it will," Wells responded. Caitlin then led Ray and Felicity away to show them something, and Artemis left with Wells to go greet more people - a man, woman and a small toddler who had entered, looking very confused.

"Elaine! Kyle! So nice of you both to join us!" Artemis acknowledged, before giving the child a high five, "It's good to see you too, Theodore!"

"They... don't look like investors," I murmured to Cisco, noticing how ordinary they looked, despite their well-dressed appearances. The family seemed pretty perplexed by why they'd have to be here, but were warmed by Artemis's greeting.

"Yeah, well, keep an eye on them," Cisco answered, winking, "Van Kleiss has something special for them in store."

Cisco and I continued to mill around by ourselves within the large bustle of reporters, businessmen, socialites, government officials, and scientists.

There couldn't have been more than two hundred people here, whereas the particle accelerator had reeled in thousands. Cisco then told me Wells had planned for this to be a private event, hence the smaller and much more elite audience.

Captain Singh and his husband, Rob, caught up with us, and the four of us made small talk, until I noticed a quiet, pale-complexioned man, dressed in a crisp Armani suit, rolling his eyes as Ray Palmer excitedly spoke to him. Black hair, neatly slicked to the side, and that air of subtle aloofness, of wealth, of power, and that unimpressed look on his face...

"Oh my god," Cisco whispered, widening his eyes as he tugged at my sleeve anxiously, "Is that-"

"Yeah. Come on, I'll introduce you to him," I answered, turning towards Ray and the other quiet man.

Cisco squealed and followed in behind me, and I could tell he was getting giddy. This man was his _idol._

"Hey, Bruce," I hailed, smiling politely as I held out my hand, interrupting their conversation.

"Barry," he answered plainly, giving a single shake before letting go.

"This is my friend, Cisco," I stated, "He's-"

"One of your _biggest_ fans, Mr. Wayne," Cisco stammered, enthusiastically grasping Bruce's hand with both of his, "I - I mean - Your majesty. Your highness. Your Wayne-liness. Sir."

"Francisco Ramon," he replied coolly, giving Cisco's hands a firm shake before letting go, "You're doing some clean, efficient work here. Keep it up."

Cisco dropped his jaw.

"Anyway, Bruce and I were just discussing what it would mean if the two of us became business partners," Ray interjected, "Wayne Industries and Palmer Tech have a lot more in common than outwardly seems."

Wayne and Palmer had a lot in common?

They both may be billionaires, they both may be superheroes, but that was as _far_ as their similarities went.

Ray was more of the adorable, cheerful tech geek, who happened to be gifted with a nerdy charm.

Bruce, on the other hand, was quiet, poised and gave off an aura of intelligence and determined resilience. Women went wild for him, and his wealth.

Bruce and Ray were like night and day.

"Ray, this is hardly the place to discuss such matters," Bruce replied, "I don't make open-handed agreements, when it comes to business. Or other work, for that matter."

"Yes, but-"

"Ray! There you are!" Felicity chided, making her way out of the crowd and to him, grabbing him by the elbow, "Dr. Wells is looking for you! Hi, Bruce!"

She stole Ray away from us, leaving me with one of the coolest secret superheroes in existence, and his dumb-founded fanboy.

"Must be nice, having a Felicity," Bruce murmured.

"Having a Felicity, as in having a girlfriend, or having an inside person who knows computers?" I teased.

"Alfred and I both have sufficient knowledge of programming," Bruce replied, "But it'd be nice to have an actual girlfriend."

"Weren't you with Selina?"

"I locked her up."

"You did what now?"

"She attempted a crude burglary," Bruce replied nonchalantly, "I put her behind bars."

"Oh," I responded, awkwardly rubbing my neck, "You... certainly have a way with women?"

"Did Caitlin invite you?" Cisco squeaked, finally speaking up, "I didn't invite you... Not that I don't want you here. I just had no idea you'd be coming, Mr. Wayne."

"Bruce will suffice," he mused, giving Cisco the tiniest hint of a kind smile, before he faced me, "And nobody invited me. I'm crashing your little party, so to speak. Barry, there was something I needed to discuss with you. Urgently."

Cisco and I both looked to each other with newfound fear, and followed Bruce out of the convention hall into the empty Cortex, powering on the computers at the main desk as if he had done so before.

"What's with this set-up?" He scorned quietly, "Everything's out in the open. There's no stealth or secrecy here. Anyone can just barge in here and uncover all of your work. You don't even have a proper security system."

Cisco turned red.

"Satellite-based adapters. A Musa 43 operating system? A 7.6 Saturn processor?" Bruce continued, "The bats in my underground cave know better systemic organization than this."

"I - the satellite adapters are the best in their class..." Cisco replied weakly.

"This is the most _basic_ and unrefined vigilante base I have ever seen," Bruce stated firmly, glancing up at the far wall in the Cortex, "Let me guess: Barry keeps his suit in that broom closet over there?"

"It's a shielded display case, to be exact, Mr. Wayne, sir..." Cisco answered timidly.

"Ground-breaking."

Without making eye contact, Bruce fished out a business card and handed it to Cisco, other hand typing at the keyboard. "Call me when you have time. You're in severe need of an upgrade. I know the lab isn't making much money nowadays, but I can't let you continue to embarrass yourselves like this. Now, back to business-"

I moved over and stood beside Bruce, peering down at the computer screen. He had pulled up a news report on a terrible prison bust.

"Barry. Three months ago, the Falcone family allied with the Joker in orchestrating a major break-out at Arkham Asylum, freeing hundreds of prisoners in the process," Bruce described, "I've been successful in incarcerating a good majority of the escapees, but a few have sought haven in other cities outside my reach. Metropolis. Starling. Jump. Kandor. But I never expected one to make as far as Central."

He clicked on the screen, and pulled up a criminal file on a man with a deck of cards tattooed over his neck, a hard scowl, and the hollow, emotionless eyes of a criminal.

"This man. Felipe Garzonas. He may not have any powers or unique abilities, but he's just as horrible as any metahuman you've met," Bruce explained, "Garzonas been charged for several cases of third-degree rape, molestation and assault. He's hiding here in Central City. I've already asked Gordon to notify your chief of police about him, and establish a city-wide curfew until he's apprehended."

"Singh and I know about him," I stuttered, nervously wringing my hands, "We've already got a case on him. He - I think he's working with a metahuman. Mark Mardon."

"He must be. There's no way he'd be able to hide all the way out here on his own," Bruce answered grimly, downloading files about Garzonas onto our computer, "Barry, you should know that his targets are mostly women, usually in their twenties. And he's known to attack strictly at night. Iris? Caitlin? Artemis? You want to make sure they aren't wandering around after dark, especially on their own. Garzonas is a vicious, merciless monster, and even I haven't been able to figure out his attack patterns."

Chills immediately flew down my spine. Cisco threw me a worried glance.

It didn't take a telepathic connection to know that we both had the same thought on our minds.

Bruce Wayne, the world's greatest detective by far, hadn't been able to analyze this man's plans.

What hope did we have?

What's more - my idiotic sneak of a girlfriend was meandering around town all alone at night.

Yeah, that wasn't going to go on for much longer, not on my watch.

"I can't be in two cities at once, so this one falls on your shoulders. But when you catch him, bring him to me," Bruce advised darkly, "He has a special punishment awaiting him in Gotham."

There was a deadliness brimming his voice, but it was common fact that the Prince of Gotham never murdered. Garzonas wouldn't be lucky enough to be punished with just death, after everything he had done.

"We should go back now," Cisco suggested, his voice small, "We'll miss the reveal."

Bruce and I nodded and we shut off the Cortex systems. The three of us silently made our way back to the convention hall, still packed with people.

We found Artemis and Dr. Wells almost immediately. Artemis seemed slightly anxious about something, and Wells was quietly laughing it off, chiding her. He smiled when he saw the three of us.

"Last-minute stage fright, when she has nothing to fear, other than fear itself," Wells chuckled, before nodding at our newcomer, "Mr. Bruce Wayne. Pleasure to see you."

Artemis's gaze changed when she heard his name.

"Dr. Wells," Bruce acknowledged politely, shaking Wells' hand.

"Mr. Wayne, I'd like you to meet STAR Labs' newest physicist," Wells stated, gesturing towards an expressionless Artemis, "This is Artemis. She's one of the greatest up-and-coming scientists of this day and age."

Bruce offered a gentlemanly smile as he extended his hand once again, "Bruce Wayne. I've heard good things about you, Ms. Van Kleiss."

"Trust me. You haven't heard anything yet," Cisco riposted, nudging my elbow with his.

"It's an honor to meet you, Mr. Wayne," Artemis responded courteously.

I immediately felt uncomfortable. Bruce and Artemis had... a little too much in common, personality-wise. Both were sharp, ruthless geniuses with demanding personalities.

Someone give Artemis a multi-billion dollar company and a passion for flying rodents, and she'd probably be just as hardcore as he was.

Hell, she was hardcore enough on her own, with the sweet cheeky persona veiling the mastermind that she truly was.

"Artemis, whenever you're ready," Wells advised, "We're all waiting for you."

She took a deep breath and smiled at me. I reached over to squeeze her hand.

"You'll do great," I offered encouragingly, "At... whatever it is you're about to do."

"Yeah, just make sure there's no nuclear explosions, or that you don't release a radioactive shockwave, or that anyone dies," Cisco teased, "We certainly don't want history to repeat itself."

Dr. Wells and I gave him unimpressed looks.

Artemis placed a quick kiss at my cheek and squeezed my hand one last time before letting go, and disappeared in the mass of people waiting in front of the giant structure, covered with a white blanket, placed in the back of the hall.

"We better go in there," Dr. Wells remarked, and he and Cisco followed after her. Bruce and I walked behind them.

"Fun fact," Bruce announced as we succeeded them, "Artemis used to work for me."

I rolled my eyes. "You both are full of surprises today, aren't you?"

"It was at one of Wayne Enterprises' subsidiary companies. The Wayne Biotech Foundation, in Boston. She had landed an exclusive engineering internship with us during her first year at MIT," Bruce stated, as we took our place at the back of the crowd, "She actually devised and invented the spiral processing turbines Wayne Biotech now uses to synthesize inorganic matter through inter-spectral applications, at the mere age of 18."

"And...?"

Bruce gave me an odd look.

I chuckled. "Look, I'd say I'm impressed, but I'm used to Artemis being a wicked genius. This is nothing new for me."

"Then you shouldn't be surprised when you learn the head engineers at WBF kicked her out and took credit for her work, allowing her inventions became the catalyst for their success."

"Okay - that's just _cold."_

"I hadn't known about it until I ran a background check on her before coming here. Sure enough, the designs for the spiral turbine engines are all over her engineering projects, dating well before she began working with Wayne Biotech," Bruce stated, "The way she greeted me proves she still holds a grudge against Wayne Industries."

"Excuse me?"

Bruce tipped an eyebrow up. "Most women throw themselves at my feet upon meeting me. Your girlfriend exhibited no such interest."

"If she 'exhibited' interest, Bruce, I doubt she'd be calling herself my girlfriend. She was being professional about it," I retorted, "What did you want her to do? Swoon?"

"Constriction in the pupils. Locked jaw. Tense handshake. Overall, strained politeness, with dissent hidden in her body language," Bruce listed off, "Any kindness in her gesture was clearly forced. I'm here to apologize to her, on behalf of my company. I don't leave my debts unpaid."

He then pulled out a rectangular slip of paper and handed it to me.

A check - made out to Artemis Van Kleiss, c/o STAR Labs - signed for $3,879,000.000.

I blinked.

"That was the final amount of revenue we made because of her inventions," Bruce described, "It's only fair that she gets paid what she deserves."

"Bruce, I don't think you can-"

"Think of it this way: If she had stayed at Wayne Biotech and had never gotten fired, she never would have had reason to move away from Boston after graduating, and the two of you never would've met," Bruce stated, "You owe me one. Catch Garzonas for me, and I'll consider it even."

I was about to respond, before his watch lit up on his wrist with a small _beep!_

He looked it over, before nodding at me. "I'm due in Gotham. We'll see each other again soon. I'd wish you luck, but you're in good hands here."

"Alright, well, thanks, Bruce," I accosted. He gave a polite nod, before turning away to leave.

He was certainly a dramatic one, I thought, turning my focus back to Artemis. She smiled and her voice was clear and poised as she spoke of her parents' original vankleissium, which she had synthesized into its raw nucleic form, ultimately leading to her discovery of the particle she had named the hyper electron. To the side, a large screen presented charts and diagrams as visual aids.

"What sets the hyper electron apart from any other subatomic particle this world has seen," Artemis raved, "Is the fact that it moves almost a hundred times faster than the regular electron. This small difference enables it to bond with itself, meaning it can create and imitate any substance known to mankind. Ultimately, the hyper electron has no limitations in the world of science. Physical, chemical, biological, technological - this particle has the ability to reinvent our future as we know it."

People murmured amongst themselves in disbelief.

"My main goal today is to show you how it can reverse the negative effects of the particle accelerator and make this city whole again," she continued, silencing the massive crowd once again, "Dr. Harrison Wells' particle accelerator was designed to be one of the most powerful man-made inventions of this century, and had promised to change the fields of medicine and technology as we had known them. Due to powers outside of his control, this didn't go as planned, and the accelerator malfunctioned when powered on. A horrible shockwave was released into the city and affected several human beings biologically, turning them into what the Department of Homeland Security now refers to as 'metahumans'."

She paused for a second, before clearing her throat. "The discovery of the hyper electron has enabled me to change these metahumans back into their human forms by altering their entire genetic composition, and completely undoing the physical damage done by the radioactive fallout."

"What?" Someone gasped.

"Even - even you can't do that!" Another voice protested quietly.

"This is impossible. You're lying."

The crown broke into confusion, asserting their own superiority over her.

She smiled calmly, and walked over to the giant structure hidden under the blanket.

Caitlin and Cisco had told me she had been building it for several weeks on end in her lab, and she had been testing its effects on metahuman blood samples collected from the Pipeline, and on Andrew.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I proudly present to you," she announced, before pulling the blanket down, revealing a gigantic... microwave? "-The genome influx chamber. Measuring 10 feet tall with an 8 by 8 base, it's a shielded chamber, paneled with radioactive hyper electrons on the inside. It's designed to erase the effects of the nuclear fallout and repair the genome, successfully reverting any metahuman back to their human form, to what they were before the particle accelerator gave them powers."

"Radioactive?" Someone accused angrily, "You created a nuclear bomb! We're looking at another explosion waiting to happen! You'll only make the metahumans more powerful!"

"Yeah, STAR Labs has done nothing but create trouble for Central City!"

"Dr. Kurtz, while your enthusiasm is certainly appreciated, I assure you that nothing is able to escape my chamber," Artemis promised, her smile unfazed by the wild accusations, "The chamber's panels are built from palladium glass - the most durable substance in history. It's inescapable. Any reactions that occur in the chamber will be contained in its own walls."

"How do we know if it will work?" A woman interjected.

Artemis's smile glinted victoriously. "I'm glad you asked, Dr. McGee. Are there any metahumans here with us today, willing to volunteer themselves for a small experiment?"

My stomach flipped.

Artemis's gaze cut straight through the crowd, tunneling on me with a kind smile. "Now, now, don't be shy. I promise you it'll work. There is zero chance of failure."

My heartbeat pumped hot blood through my chest. I took a step back.

Artemis, what in god's name are you-

"I'll do it," another voice announced, in the middle of the crowd.

Artemis's smile grew brighter and she winked at me triumphantly. She had been _joking_ with me.

The crowd parted in surprise, before people cried out in fear.

A tall horrifying ghost had appeared in their midst.

Andrew...

The people shrieked as they tried to get as far away from him as possible. Others stood rooted in their spots, frozen in terror.

"CCPD! Put your hands up!" David shouted, pointing a gun right at Andrew. Joe and Eddie flanked either side of him.

"You have the right to remain silent! Surrender! There are innocent people here!"

"Officers, lower your weapons," Artemis ordered, stepping forward to pull Eddie's arm down, "He means no harm. He's with me."

"Van Kleiss, you just admitted to harboring a wanted murderer!" David asserted, "You have no say in this."

"Let me cure him."

"Thompson. Put your hands where we can see them."

"David-"

Andrew shuddered, but got down on his knees, placing his hands behind his head. "I'm not here to hurt anyone. I promise."

"Captain," Dr. Wells urged, "Give her a chance. This will work."

"David, you've seen what the hyper electron is capable of," Artemis stated, "Let me cure him. I have the power to make this city safe again. Just let me show you."

Joe studied her, before furtively glancing over at me. I gave him a quick nod.

"Captain, I think it's worth a shot," Joe urged, lowering his pistol. David and Eddie threw him disbelieving glares, locking their guns stubbornly.

"Please!" A woman cried, trying to run out to us. A man grasped her arm, holding her back. It was the couple from earlier - Elaine and Kyle. Their toddler son, Theodore, stood behind his father's legs, worry in his eyes.

"Mommy," Theodore murmured, his voice growing urgent, "Mommy, Daddy, that's _Andrew!"_

"It can't be..." the father mumbled, unable to recognize the hazy phantom-ish figure standing before him.

Andrew slowly focused his attention onto the family.

"M-mom? Dad?" He gasped.

 _"Please._ Don't shoot. That's my son. I haven't seen him in months. Please don't shoot him," she begged, tears flowing down her face, _"Please_ \- I've already lost him once."

"Officers," Dr. Wells ordered sternly, taking off his glasses, "You don't want that family to watch see their son murdered. Let Artemis help him. She knows what she's doing."

I swore to god I was ready to show David his own cell down in the Pipeline if he remained stubborn.

Luckily, he consented, putting his gun away. Eddie reluctantly followed in his example.

In the crowd, Iris wore a frozen look of worry as she watched the scenario, taking note of it all for the paper. Some of the scientists pulled back into the hall, watching curiously. Caitlin, Cisco, Felicity and Ray were there as well.

Artemis pulled Andrew forward by the hand.

"You - you invited my family..." he stuttered.

"Of course. You deserve a reunion, didn't you?"

He gulped. "Can I - can I at least say goodbye to them?"

"No."

 _"No?!"_

She smiled, and pulled the chamber's heavy palladium door open. "You're not going to die. We both know this will work."

"But if it doesn't..."

A tiny set of feet darted forward, and Theodore threw his small, chubby arms around his brother's waist, unafraid. He looked up at Andrew with hot tears swelling in his eyes.

"Andy, where were you?!" He murmured, his voice breaking, "I missed you all the time..."

"Andrew... we... we thought you died, after the accelerator exploded," Kyle explained softly, carefully approaching his ghosted son, "What... what _happened_ to you?"

"Dad... I was hit by the fallout," he answered quietly, "I became a meta, and I was dangerous. I couldn't control my own abilities. I didn't want to hurt any of you..."

"You should've asked for help, son," his father responded, cautiously embracing Andrew, "We had no idea what happened to you... We thought we'd never see you again."

"I did ask for help," Andrew replied, giving Artemis a knowing smile, "She can cure me."

"You know how to help him?" Elaine asked.

"It'll take no more than fifteen seconds," Artemis assured with a promising smile, "Granted - it'll be the longest, most painful fifteen seconds of his life, but I can make him human again."

"Do it," Kyle urged, "Please. You've been away from us for too long."

The audience gathered around and watched Andrew give his family one last hug, before he stepped inside the influx chamber, ready for all of his DNA to be permanently transmutated into its original state.

Photographers and reporters moved to the front of the crowd, journalists reporting the event to their cameramen, the suspense tangibly building in the hall.

Artemis shut and locked Andrew into the strange machine, and grabbed a tablet monitor.

"At this point, I'm releasing the synthesized electrons from their panels," she dictated, tapping the screen, "They're going to fluctuate within the chamber, until they're able to find the subject inside, which in this case, is Thompson."

With that, the chamber began to make a low whirring sound, and filled with an opaque white smoke on the inside - until Andrew could no longer be seen.

Caitlin, Dr. Wells, Joe and Iris appeared by my side.

"In a matter of moments, the electrons will find and transmutate all of his genetic structure, undoing the damage caused by the accelerator last year. The reaction will not hurt him."

As if to prove her wrong, a tormented, pained scream was heard from within the chamber, cutting through the silence.

"What are you doing to him?!" Elaine shrieked.

"Andrew!"

"You're torturing him!"

The police produced their guns again, but didn't know who to point them at.

"Stay back!" Cisco ordered, "She said she knows what she's doing! He'll be okay!"

Artemis studied the tablet in her hand, ignoring the throttle of questions and accusations being thrown at her.

"It's done!" She announced, running forward and pressing a series of buttons on the control panel of the chamber, "The reaction's complete!"

A seeping sound signified that the door had been unlocked, and Artemis wrenched it open, letting a scentless smoke fill and pass through the hall, slowly dissolving.

Pin drop silence filled the hall as a tall silhouette slump against the chamber's doorway, his hand holding his forehead.

The entire room held its breath and watched, hearts pounding. Once the smoke cleared, we took sight of a tall, emaciated boy, with deep shadows under his eyes, grimy auburn hair, and dirty, soiled clothes.

The boy groaned, and rubbed his forehead before opening his eyes, and gasping at the sight of his own hands - now in _color_ instead of a translucent gray.

"I'm - I'm _normal_ ," he amazed, his voice a different, more human pitch.

The cameras began flashing like crazy.

The audience applauded, and the Thompsons shot forward to smother their long lost son in inescapable hugs.

That was just the beginning.

Caitlin - and several other curious doctor and scientist figures - studied every ounce of Andrew under microscopes and blood tests, and proved that Artemis's machine worked. There was _no_ remnant of the metahuman gene in his body.

He was human, and he was going to stay that way for the rest of his life.

At Artemis's and Andrew's request, a certain devilishly handsome CSI was able to go back to the furnace factory in the South, and find evidence proving Andrew did not kill his lead scientists, and with the help of their family's lawyer, we were able to clear Andrew's name, declaring him innocent of murder. He was welcomed back to CCU's engineering school in the upcoming fall, and his parents and younger brother refused to let him out of their sight, and spent every second fussing and caring for the son they had lost.

He couldn't stop thanking us. We _had_ given him his happiness and peace of mind back, after all.

Once word got out about what happened, the Lab began encountering all kinds of metahumans: young and old, rich and poor, and each with a uniquely odd set of abilities. An 8-year old girl with actual dolphin flippers for arms. A 67 year old man with a body comprised entirely of ice. Sisters, who had fused together into Siamese twins. A 28-year old man with scaly skin, and the ability to shoot poison from his fingertips.

These were just a handful in the face of an entire population.

One by one, they all cautiously entered the Cortex, and shyly asked if the scientist from the news could cure them too.

And Artemis did, with a kind smile on her face, asking for nothing in return. She never turned anyone down, and her big heart was responsible for reuniting families and loved ones, enabling people to return to their old, homely lives, granting them comfort and ease again.

Pretty soon, the numbers swelled, and metahumans began pouring in hundreds per day, thousands per week, and the Lab was busier than ever - but with true and open reason.

At the hands of the scientists, politicians, and philanthropist socialites who saw what Artemis's invention was doing for the city, investments, donations, and revenue boomed. Backed by billions once again, STAR Labs had earned back its reputation as an international science hot-spot, and the team was able to support itself in ways it never could have, before.

With the help of Dr. Wells' attorneys and editors, Artemis was able to place a patent on the hyper electron, dubbing it her creation and hers alone, and also managed to crank out a book or two, based on her research notes. Wells and Cisco named her work "Van Kleiss's Laws of Particle Interactions" - which I honestly thought was the most wonderful thing ever.

With the more than sufficient funds, Cisco and Caitlin were able to pursue projects they had never been able to before. Cisco built an amazing set of drones that could steer themselves through heat-sensing technology - worth millions of dollars, no less - and Caitlin took the happy opportunity as a change to go back and finish her bioengineering postdoctoral. Our Cortex systems were completely revamped - almost impossible to break into, with unbelievably new state-of-the-art technology, and the team continued their science and engineering research, as was that Lab's original goal, and continued opening thousands of doors - for both the people of Central City, and for science.

That wasn't all of it.

Artemis and Cisco worked together to redesigning my suit with a very expensive duranium alloy, making it stronger and more lightweight than ever before, and also promising my safety.

"To put it this way, you're just not going to be able to die in this new suit," Cisco gushed, showcasing me the new, darker red, metallic suit, with the more durable texture.

"The duranium backing will be able to absorb more than 20 times the shock your other suits could!" Artemis promised, kissing my cheek, "It's death-proof!"

Now, when the Flash caught new villains and threats, he'd take them straight to Artemis's genome influx chamber, where they'd lose all of their powers, no longer a threat, before the not-metahumans would be sent off to Iron Heights at the hands of Joe, Singh and Briggs.

Officials estimated that, by the end of four weeks, atleast 90% of Central City's metahuman population had been cleansed, and were walking the streets in their original, human states, reunited with their former lives. The city was seeing a new dawn of safety, prosperity and happiness.

"The two of you keep this up, and you'll put a cop like me out of a job," Joe chuckled, putting his arms around us both in warm hugs.

With the help of the scientists at Palmer Tech (Hi, Felicity...), we were able to develop a neural triggering device that, when put to the minds of any organism - say, a metahuman who just so happened to have been living in our Pipeline for the past 4 to 6 months or so - we were able to "clip out" their memories of being at STAR Labs or knowing my secret identity, and after they'd been ridden of their powers, they too would be handed off to Iron Heights.

"I... I got no idea where I was for the past 5 months," Shawna Baez confessed to the officials at Iron Heights, shaking her head, "All I remember is I was fighting the Flash. Then I was in the weird chamber thing, and lost my powers. And now I'm here. That's it."

"I don't remember where I was, either," Rajeet stated, "All I remember is the Flash taking me somewhere."

"I'm - I'm on the same boat, sir," Kyle Nimbus murmured.

Which ultimately meant we were able to clean out our particle accelerator, once we sent all of the metahumans to prison, meaning we were able to shut the particle accelerator down completely, and save a ton on our electricity bill.

Well, _almost_ all of the metahumans...

Hartley Rathaway had been found dead in his chamber, his body decayed and beginning to rot.

After conducting an autopsy, I found that he had been dead for at least a few months, and had died of natural internal causes.

He was returned to his family, who broke down crying over the death of their only son.

Meanwhile, Artemis was becoming somewhat of a celebrity after she publicized her discovery of a new electron. She was invited as a guest speaker to countries all over the globe, welcomed as a guest lecturer to universities all across the planet, and she always always brought us, or at least one of us, with her, meaning we all got some sort of a vacation together.

Caitlin accompanied her to Oxford, England, and the two had a blast together.

Cisco and Wells went with her to Stanford, in California, where they met several other great scientists, and completely geeked out in the Silicon Valley - Cisco snagging a selfie with the real Elon Musk.

Dr. Wells flipped out with excitement when Artemis received an invitation to Yale, his alma mater, where the original particle accelerator had been built before he had chosen to build his own. He dug up his vintage light blue Yale Bulldogs baseball cap, and the two of them went alone - and didn't kill each other, shocking us all. Rather, Dr. Wells was becoming increasingly fond of Artemis, and his new love for her was heartwarming. He truly was beginning to appreciate her, and supported her desire to use science to make lives easier.

It almost felt as if he was accepting her as his daughter, or something along those lines.

And, yeah, of course I went with her when she was invited to the Sorbonne for some annual science convention or something. Who could resist a week in Paris, alone with their significant other, right?

When Artemis received a letter from Cambridge, MA, cordially inviting her to an annual conjoined MIT/Harvard Alumni Banquet, and give a small speech about her hyper electron, Dr. Wells gave a small, pointed smile.

"Artemis, you're not going to want to miss this," he advised knowingly.

And she never would have. There was a new, fresh kind of air around her, a loving smile that never left her face, as she excitedly showed us around her expensive, urban and new-age/hippy-esque hometown. She eagerly showed us her parents' lab facilities. And her huge childhood brownstone home. She left two huge bouquets of roses at her parents' graves, and sent her best wishes to them, before she showed us the best spots in town to get ice cream, and pizza, and her favorite park, by the Hudson River. She snuck into classes at MIT, greeting previous professors with loving hugs, and introduced us to her old friends, still finishing up their fourth year in contrast to her graduating a year early, almost all of whom broke into a fit of excitement at seeing her again.

"Artemis! What the hell are you doing here?!" One of her friends squealed, before taking her small frame into a bone-crushing hug, "We missed you so much! You never call, or text anymore - which clearly signifies you've been busy, probably ruling over your own mini-kingdom, or something!"

"Yeah, how is it, in that metahuman-infested creep town?!" Another asked jokingly, before Artemis grimaced and slapped him in scolding.

"See? I knew you were going to go onto taking over the world!" Other asserted, before picking up her up in hugs, "Creating your own new electron? You take 'making your parents proud' to a whole new dimension!"

Artemis smiled as she introduced the four of us to everyone she encountered, never growing tired of the repetition. "Guys, this is the great Dr. Harrison Donovan Wells, whom you all have already heard of - seriously, I would not have come this far without his guidance and support. That's Caitlin, the greatest person in history to ever graduate medical school and my best friend; Cheeky Dork #1 is Cisco, with fantastic taste in movies, even more fantastic hair, and an incomparably skilled hand at anything engineering-related, and is also my best friend, and Cheeky Dork #2 is my boyfriend, Barry, who had to be the most incredible person to have ever been born."

"Wow, it's great to meet all of you," they all would answer, before whispering something to her on the sly about how they couldn't believe she was actually dating someone, which made her giggle and blush.

It was easy to say the four of us felt a slight bit out of place here.

She had an established life here - friends, her home, her parents' lab, her entire family history was rooted in Cambridge - and she had given up all of it to move to Central City. But one glance at her perfect smile, and we knew she was happy with her decision to leave home.

Later on, at the alumni banquet - where, at the age of 21, she was clearly the youngest invitee - she continued to introduce us to several of her old professors from MIT, and other professors and scientists from Harvard, who had been close friends of her parents, and were practically family to her.

But something gnawed away at her, and her smiles seemed forced. She was missing someone, and glanced around the hall with a sad look in her eyes.

"Artemis, were you expecting to meet someone?" Dr. Wells asked gently.

"Yeah, its... It's nothing. I was just hoping my stepdad would be here," she mumbled, "Lin was an alumni of Harvard Law, and he never missed the annual banquet. I haven't seen him in years, and I haven't been able to contact him, so I was praying I'd run into him and his family here. They really would've loved you all..."

Her expression shifted back into a smile, and she stepped forward, tapping an elderly blonde woman in a dark blue dress on the shoulder. The other woman turned around, and broke into a look of surprise.

"Why, Artemis, it's so nice to see you!"

"It's great to see you too, Professor Yates!"

Cisco frowned, as the two walked away, grinning as they spoke to one another, and Dr. Wells was ensnared in a conversation with an old colleague of his, who recognized him.

"Someone has to break it to her that her foster fam kinda disappeared," Cisco whispered.

"She can't just go on thinking they abandoned her," Caitlin added.

My heart broke at the sight of Artemis's hopeful smile as she greeted a tall, skinny man with black hair, before that same smile melted away into an embarrassed frown.

"Oh - I'm so sorry, I had mistaken you for someone else," she explained, putting her smile back on. The older man offered an encouraging grin and introduced himself anyway, shaking her hand.

"We can't. She'll be crushed," I found myself answering, "I... don't think she's ready to find that out. We're not telling her anything, until we know for sure what happened to him."

"This is going to get to her sooner or later. She's going to try and find out on her own, one of these days... What will we do then?"

"We keep her busy, so she doesn't get that far. And besides," I responded, with a shrug, "If Lin is purposely ignoring her, he doesn't deserve to see her."

"Woah there," Cisco answered, shocked, "That's Territorial Boyfriend Syndrome right there..."

"No, it's not-"

"Barry, the man changed her life when he took her in," Caitlin described, "He did for her what Joe did for you. Of course, she'd miss him. I just have no idea how someone can raise such an incredibly gifted child, without ever wanting to see her again."

Dr. Wells and Artemis were together now, and were laughing at something an elderly bearded man, dressed in a tan-colored suit, had said to them. They bid the third man goodbye, before Artemis pushed Dr. Wells' wheelchair back to us.

It was honestly kind of sweet. Dr. Wells never let anyone push his chair, always let his hands cramp after using the joystick for several hours on end. But his feelings towards Artemis completely reversed after she built that genome influx chamber, and again, it resembled the precious bond that could only be shared between father and daughter.

She had wondered if she could undo Dr. Wells' paralysis using the hyper-electron and the influx chamber. He had frantically warned against it, and had told all of us that he didn't deserve to walk again, after all the lives he had barraged.

"Dr. Wells, that's nonsense," I had told him.

"Yeah, you weren't responsible for the particle accelerator exploding," Cisco cajoled, "You're not the one to blame for the fallout. The man in yellow is."

"Dr. Wells... Please. You don't deserve this," Caitlin had added.

"My machine is saving thousands of lives," Artemis pressed, "It would mean the world to me if it could help you too... You deserve it. Without your help, I never would've been able to come this far."

Dr. Wells had smiled coldly, and took off his glasses, chewing for a second on the tip of the temples before replacing them. "Artemis... I can't tell you how much that means to me, that you're willing to do that after all the trouble I put you through, and how I mistreated you. But at this point, I don't see my disability as a setback. Rather, I see it as a sign of God's mercy - that this is the only punishment I received, after letting lives be lost at my hands. I won't be able to let it go, if you treat this. Once your electron is able to work as a necromancer, and can undo the deaths I am at fault for, then I will gladly give up my wheelchair for a pair of working legs."

Odd. At one point, he had been indifferent towards death, saying he believed that our lives - mine, especially - were more important than the rest of the city. Guess accepting Artemis was changing his point of view over multiple matters as well.

Strangely enough, Artemis never once asked me if I wanted to get rid of my powers. She actually forced me to stay away from the genome influx chamber - "Metahuman Microwave!", Cisco had renamed it - because of the potential effects of the hyper electron and my own overly-positively charged blood. It just made me love her more - knowing she knew me well enough to not ask me to give up my speed.

"You kidding?" She retorted, throwing her arms over my shoulders, "This city would fall to its knees without you. And besides, you love running. I'll be damned before I ask you to even come close to the chamber."

Dr. Wells, Caitlin, Cisco and I were now seated at a table in the banquet's dining hall, watching Artemis step up to the podium, thank the MC, and take her turn to speak. I was beginning to suspect that there was some kind of magic about her, and in her voice and smile as she spoke. Her composed confidence and charismatic intelligence were magnetic, and she had to have been the most amazing thing to ever grace history with her presence. She was beautiful, in every sense of the word.

I was the one lucky to be on the same planet as her, not the other way around.

Caitlin tapped my arm, breaking me from my trance. "Earth to Barry? You have the most adorable, lovestruck look on your face..."

"I usually only joke about this to annoy you both, but the two of you really are perfect for each other," Cisco murmured admiringly.

I blushed deeply, and the trio grinned knowingly at me, before turning their attention back to Artemis, who was wrapping up her talk on the electron making energy renewable, and reinventing the fields of medicine and technology.

I caught Dr. Wells watching me out of the corner of his eye, studying me with a cryptic, almost hateful glare, before he too turned away to Artemis.

Funny. I must've imagined that.

Artemis concluded her speech with a polite "Thank you" and the audience clapped heartily. The MC caught her before she could leave the stage though.

"Oh, Ms. Van Kleiss, we have a bit of a surprise for you," he answered with a smile, as two Harvard faculty members arrived, holding something flat and square in their hands, "It's not everyday we discover a new building block of nature, and redefine science as we know it. What you have done is remarkable in ways words just can't describe, and is truly destined to change history - as well as the future."

One of the faculty members smiled as the MC handed him the mic. "On behalf of Harvard University and the John Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, I, Dean Castor O'Connell, would personally like to award your very own honorary doctorate in applied physics. Your work will be the catalyst has and will change the fate of science, engineering and research, and is undeniably-"

His words were drowned out by the roaring round of applause that erupted from the hall, and almost every audience member rose for a standing ovation. Artemis was speechless, and a single tear crept down her cheek as she stared at the new degree in her hands in disbelief.

We celebrated heartily when we got home. Because of Artemis, the streets were safer, and the Lab had completely turned around from the sad, worn down dump it had become after the accelerator exploded. We were all unbelievably proud of her.

Now, having an established reputation, she either spent her time busy, working at the Lab or in the city, traveling to one foreign conference or another, or with me, in the new home we had bought together in Central City's posh Englewood district.

She came home at almost midnight, and collapsed beside me on the couch with a heavy, exhausted sigh, as I watched my old copy of Fantastic Four, at a scene where Susan Storm, aka the Invisible Woman, was saving the day.

"Wow," I remarked, placing Artemis's head in my lap, playing with her hair, "I wish my girlfriend was a hero…"

I leaned down, and gently kissed her forehead, wrapping my arms around her torso in a loving hug.

"Oh wait… she _is_ …."

###

After a rather arduous day at work, I headed over to STAR Labs, as I always did, and once again found the Lab eerily empty.

It didn't take long for me to find Caitlin and Cisco, peering into Artemis's lab, wearing kittenish smiles as they eavesdropped on the conversation inside.

"What's going o-"

Cisco immediately put his hand to my mouth, and a finger to his lips.

"They're bonding," Caitlin whispered, and opened the door to the lab just a few centimeters. Inside, several of Artemis's inventions were scattered across her work tables. Guns, lightsabers, new little gizmos I hadn't been introduced to yet. Artemis was dressed in an old NASA t-shirt and worn out black jeans, and had her feet kicked up onto the table as she took notes on something from an open laptop. She was laughing at something Dr. Wells had said.

"We didn't want to disturb them, but dear lord - this is so sweet to watch," Cisco murmured, "It's really so nice to see them not hating or yelling at each other, for once."

"You _nitwit_ ," Dr. Wells chuckled, his dimples showing as he smiled. He harmlessly tossed a crumpled paper ball at Artemis, "Don't make fun of my hair."

"Oh, Harry, don't be ridiculous," she intoned, ignoring the ball that hit her head as she continued working, "You are in dire need of a haircut. Your hair is the worst thing I have honestly ever seen - it's nothing more than a mess of black tangles, sitting on top of your head, and makes you look old and sad."

"A mess of black tangles?" Dr. Wells teased, eyes shining with a smile, "Van Kleiss, have you ever looked in a mirror?"

"And seriously. Were you _born_ wearing a black sweater?" Artemis joked, typing something into the laptop before scratching notes onto an adjacent notebook, "Because that is all I have ever seen you wear. Trust me. You need a new look."

"Tess bought me this sweater, actually," he answered softly, rubbing the sweater's hem with his fingers, smiling at it longingly, "It was her last gift to me, before she died."

"Way to kill the mood, Wells," she retorted, before handing him a coffee mug, "Green tea?"

He seemed slightly startled, but took it from her, skeptically sniffing the contents of the mug. "What's this made of?"

"Cyanide, bleach and rat poison, with just a hint of liquid nitrogen."

"Huh..." he murmured, before taking a sip. He smiled. "This is exactly how I make _my_ tea."

"You add three teaspoons of cyanide too?"

"Is this a Japanese matcha blend?" He inquired, unfazed by her sick joke, "It tastes just like the brand I use."

"You buy yours from the tiny grocery store on Treehill? The one brand whose name you can't pronounce, that nobody buys? I thought _I_ was the only one who liked it."

"Yes, and I _always_ over-boil, then put two teabags in instead of one-"

"And skip the sugar?"

" _Exactly_ ," Dr. Wells complimented, taking another sip.

Artemis studied him with a blank look in her eyes. "That is... a very strange thing to have in common with me, sir..."

He shrugged. "Great minds think alike."

"Great minds don't share identical taste buds."

He ignored her comment.

"Sir, that actually is a _very_ strange and precise thing for us to have in common," she mumbled, "Have you been watching me, or something?"

He smiled back at her, untroubled by her accusation. "You know - your parents would've been extremely proud of you, and everything you've accomplished."

She looked at him expectantly.

"We're all very proud of you, actually," Wells continued, dropping eye contact, "Especially me. I hired you into this lab, hoping you'd turn it around, and you've done exactly that."

"Oh my god," Caitlin murmured, "He's expressing emotions. Someone call 911. He mustn't be feeling well."

Cisco snickered.

"I truly do owe you apologies, for our rough relationship in the beginning," he stated shyly, "I hadn't known how you'd react to finding out we worked with a speedster, and had my doubts about you. Never have I been so wrong about someone... In many ways, you've shown me what it's like to be a father."

Artemis looked up at him with a crooked smirk. "I mean - I don't blame you for disliking me at first, sir."

"You don't?"

"No," she conceded, snorting a quick laugh, "If I was a Yale grad, I too would immediately pick on the Harvard kid. College rivalries are tough, dude."

He rolled his eyes, and groaned. "You weren't a Harvard grad when you were hired, Van Kleiss. You never even formally _attended_ the school-"

"It's alright, Harrison," she answered, patting his shoulder, "Whatever helps a silly bulldog sleep better at night."

"At least my school has an alma mater," he responded, "Harvard is just a color."

"And now's the part where I remind you that MIT is my alma mater, not Harvard. But it doesn't matter, because beavers are _way_ cooler than bulldogs anyway."

"You're impossible. Beavers are hideous, and bulldogs are much cuter anyway."

"Beavers are smarter, though."

"No, they're not!"

"Oh, yes, they are!"

The two then broke into a completely childish debate, giving equally immature arguments. Dr. Wells groaned and hit his palm to his forehead, and Artemis put her hand to her stomach, chuckling.

"Hopeless. Completely hopeless," Cisco denounced, shaking his head.

"At least he's not trying to fire her?" I answered, "But yes. Hopeless."

"So what exactly are you working on?" Wells asked, snatching her notebook away from her, reading through the scribbles.

"Just some epsilon tolerance. I'm trying to find the variable that best value that'll fit in this little logarithm Caitlin and I cooked up," Artemis answered, "We were experimenting with the hyper electron in the hopes that we could achieve a medical breakthrough together. Speaking of Caitlin, where is she?"

"She's right outside the lab, listening to everything we're saying, as if we're putting on some kind of show. Cisco's with her, and Barry must've returned from the police station by now as well."

Caitlin turned bright red at the sound of those words, and shyly opened the door, unveiling us.

Artemis smirked, and crossed her arms. Dr. Wells wore an expression that matched.

As Artemis opened her mouth to say something, she was interrupted by the thud of heavy footsteps entering the Lab.

"Oh - Artemis, a metahuman must have entered, asking to use your chamber," Cisco deduced, before turning to me, "Barry, that means you leave."

"Got it."

I turned to zip away, but a cruel, stony hand caught my neck and immediately hoisted me up into the air, cutting off my air supply. Caitlin gasped, and Artemis dropped her laptop in fear.

"Hello there, _Flash."_

I was looking down at a tall, buff 50-something year old man with a hard, square jaw, an ugly scar at his temple, and silvery hair, dressed entirely in camo military uniforms. A small squadron of six men flanked him, each soldier holding a long, black firearm.

" _Eiling,"_ Dr. Wells barked, "Let him go."

"Harrison Wells," Eiling crooned coldly, "It's good to see you too."

Barely able to breathe, I saw Artemis step forward.

 _"Drop_ him," she ordered seriously, " _Now."_

I feebly tried to kick away at him, tried to pry his rough fingers off of me. He gave me a bemused smile before facing Artemis again.

"Dr. Van Kleiss," Eiling replied, tightening his hold on me, "I'm Wade Eiling, general of the US Armed Military Force. I came to congratulate you on your new success. You've done a good job, cleaning up the streets of Central City, reducing the metahuman population. It seems you forgot one, though..."

"Didn't you hear me?" Artemis seethed, "I told you to drop him."

"Or what?" Eiling murmured, his fingers hardening against my neck.

I heard a series of crisp metallic clicks. Before I knew it, Artemis was holding one of her metaguns, had it pointed right at Eiling with both hands. In turn, his men had their shotguns aimed right for her, three men on either side of us in a semicircle.

"A Mexican standoff. Cute," Artemis muttered, clocking her own gun, "You're under the false impression I'm going to back down. Gentlemen, you're going to want to lower those weapons, or General Jarhead here is going to have his brains blown out."

I was beginning to feel dizzy. Spots appeared in my line of vision as I tried to watch.

"Two can play at that game," Eiling responded, pulling out a pistol with his free hand, aiming it at Wells.

"See, but you just exposed yourself," Artemis answered, taking a few extra steps forward until she had the gun pointed firmly into Eiling's throat, "And I will shoot. Drop him, and lower your gun. Defy me, and your next movements will be your last. Your choice, General."

He scowled, and exhaled, before opening both fists, dropping both me and his pistol to the ground. I rubbed my neck and took a deep, desperate gulp of air, before jolting around the room, dropping seven destroyed shotguns to the ground, leaving Eiling and his men completely unarmed.

Dr. Wells's face was frozen in fear, and Caitlin and Cisco were both colorless.

Artemis clocked her gun again, pushed it deeper into the skin of Eiling's neck. "Why are you here?"

"I told you. I came to congratulate you-"

"You congratulated me. Now leave."

"Ask Harrison Wells. He only became who he is today because of me. Without my help, he never would have come this far."

"Artemis, don't listen to him," Wells answered, his voice a raspy whisper, "I made a mistake in the past, allying with him. Eiling uses science as a means to torture and abuse others. His methods are cruel, and he only wants to make the military more powerful, at the hands of-"

"Quiet," Eiling barked, before facing Artemis again, " _Your_ work has the power to change lives. Your research can be used in thousands of ways to make this country safer, and you're using it for nothing other than cleaning out a contaminated DNA strand. I have a proposal for you."

"I'm not taking proposals from a man who just pointed a gun at my handicapped boss, and attempted to strangulate an innocent man."

"You're making a grave mistake here-"

"Your _parents_ made a grave mistake as well."

"Hand your research over to the US government," Eiling continued, "The military has promising opportunities for everyone. You'll be awarded in ways you could never imagine, and your work will help protect American citizens."

She made a sound that was between a snort and a laugh, jabbing the gun yet deeper into his throat.

 _"Protect_ citizens? General, what would _you_ know about protecting others? Upon entering my lab, you threatened two innocent men, one of whom is disabled from the waist down," she quipped, taunting him, "Forgive me, but I don't find you a very trustworthy man."

"You question my honor?"

"I deny its existence."

Eiling looked around, frowning before he set his eyes on me. He gestured towards me with his chin. "You're not doing anyone any favors by protecting him. He's dangerous. His body holds answers to several question regarding biological enhancement and permanent strength."

"He's dangerous?" Artemis scoffed, "He's saved thousands of lives. This city owes him everything."

"He isn't even human."

"Oh, _that's_ one I haven't heard before," she chuckled, twisting the holt of the gun against his neck, "He is the very _definition_ of human. He wakes up every morning to go to work. He washes his vegetables twice before cooking dinner. He binge-watches House of Cards on Netflix, and sometimes eats Nutella straight from the jar when he thinks no one's looking. He takes care of the people he loves, and is willing to sacrifice everything and anything to keep them safe. I find it both horrifying and pitiful that you think of him as nothing more than a potential test subject."

Eiling grimaced. "You're being foolish, keeping the hyper electron to yourself. You're on the wrong side."

"Pardon me, Wade?" Wells called out, "But _she's_ the one holding the trigger. _You're_ on the wrong side."

A harsh smile glinted on Artemis's face. "You and your men are going to leave my lab now, and if you even think of-"

"Watch your tongue," Eiling warned, "You're nothing more than an amateur scientist. I'm a seasoned veteran, and one of the highest ranking military generals in history. I've seen and done things that will leave you shaking in fear. You don't want to make an enemy of me."

Artemis blinked. "Anyway, as I was saying, you and your men will leave now, and if you show your faces here again, or try to hurt any of these people, I promise I _will_ annihilate you. Now, get out."

Eiling scowled, and slowly turned around, leaving. His men skittishly followed suit.

"Place a lock on her," he ordered, as they exited the hallway, "One way or another, we _will_ get what we want from her..."

The second they left the premises, we all collapsed in collective sighs, and Cisco ran forward to throw his arms loosely around Artemis.

"Jeez, you had me ready to pee myself back there," he gushed, "You had _six_ guns pointed right at you. Six. Guns."

Dr. Wells wiped a thin sheen of sweat away from his forehead, and tried his best at a shaky smile. "That was very cleverly executed. Thank you for not letting me get shot."

Caitlin smiled as she came up to me, and put her cool fingers at my neck, where Eiling had been crushing my windpipe.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm good," I assured, before I joined Artemis and Cisco in a group hug, pulling Caitlin in with us.

"I'm awe-struck," Caitlin murmured, "You singlehandedly scared off one of the evilest military generals, who had Barry choking half to death and a pistol pointed at Wells. For a second, I almost believed you were going to shoot him."

Artemis gave us a sheepish smile, and glanced down at the huge gun she was holding. "Believe me. I wanted to. But even if I did, it couldn't have done anything to him. This is actually just a water gun I painted black as a concept model."

She then pointed the muzzle of the up, and surprised Cisco and me by squirting us right in our faces, and we laughed as we protested. Caitlin smiled and threw her arms around Artemis's neck and shoulders in an embrace.

Even Dr. Wells couldn't suppress a proud grin, eyes twinkling fondly at her.

"Artemis, you will never cease to astound me, now, will you?"


	22. Great Expectations

**[Iris's POV]**

Mason Bridges was losing his mind.

Everything he focused on was tied back to either Harrison Wells, or Artemis.

Wells - I could understand. Bridges had been off his rocker with Wells from the very beginning, and kept accusing him of being a sociopath con-artist who had let the accelerator go off on purpose, which was pretty far-fetched, if you ask me.

Then Bridges had a completely opposite take on Artemis - who had singlehandedly built a new machine that could wipe out a metahuman's powers, and reverted them to their human forms. Bridges thought that Artemis was the single greatest thing to ever happen to Central City (after Big Belly Burger, of course) and that she was cleaning up Wells' work - again, pointing back to Wells being "evil" - and that she was bringing hope back to the city.

The world went _wild_ after she debuted her influx chamber and her discovery of the hyper-electron, and she had acquired more fame in one week than Kim Kardashian did in ten years. Everywhere you went - there she was. She was on TIME magazine, she met Stephen Hawking, she was on TED Talks, she was on TV, she was all over the web, kids and awkward teenagers would crowd around her when she went out in public - and _I_ had been the one who started it all, back when I published that article on her, when she was a new scientist at STAR Labs.

Or at least, I could lie to myself about that as much as I wanted.

No matter how much Artemis let me interview her or write articles about her, her fame and our friendship weren't doing me any favors, and Bridges couldn't be budged.

He dropped my latest article on her in the trash can adjacent to his desk, put his fingers to his eyes, and sighed.

"Iris. Iris. _Iris_ ," he muttered in a heavy voice, before looking up at me with a glower, "You've written more than 17 articles on Artemis Van Kleiss in the past month, and I've been kind enough to publish all of them. But you're forgetting the _real_ story here. You're not getting me what I really want. Stop playing games with me."

He pulled out that black file folder he had on Wells, stuffed with what he called 'evidence' and what everyone else called 'false leads', and thrust it into my hands. "Go out, and find me proof on Wells. Van Kleiss may be righting his wrongs, but he _needs_ to be unmasked, nonetheless. We can't let this slide. If you're going to call yourself an investigative journalist, you need to go and fucking _investigate_."

Unsure of what else to do, I went ahead and called the one person in the world who was close to both Wells, and myself - Barry, even though we didn't really keep in touch that often, since he moved out to go live with Artemis. Lucky for me, he agreed to meet up to talk at lunch.

I got to Jitters before he did, and waited for him at a table for two.

Sure enough, a sleek black Porsche could be seen rolling into the Jitters' parking lot, and Barry got out of the car, coolly locked it, before entering the restaurant with a dazzling smile pointed at me.

If there was anything that boy loved more than his physics (or his physicist), it was driving, and fast cars, and after Artemis swapped her Civic out for a new Carrera GT, Barry's new favorite thing became driving it.

For the oddest reason, I found it eerily strange to see Barry actually driving instead of walking around or being dropped off by others, or just _spontaneously_ showing up to places without explanation for how he got there. But, fair enough, he seemed really more relaxed this way - and really, it was a pretty sweet ride, so who could complain? Especially when Artemis's generous agreement to "share" the car got him the better fix?

"Hey," he quipped casually, still smiling as he took the seat in front of me, "Long time no talk. What's up?"

"You and that _car_ , I swear," I replied, shaking my head in mock disbelief. I handed him the coffee I had bought for him, "So how's work going?"

He shrugged again and offered a sheepish grin. "You know how it is... Now that all of the metahumans have turned themselves in and given up their powers, there's only more pressure to find the criminals who haven't. What about you? How's the CCPN?"

My turn to shrug. I opened up the file Bridges had given me, and showed Barry a picture of Dr. Wells, caught on camera. "Bridges is still on about Wells letting the accelerator explode. He wants me to ask people close to Wells what they think of him, and if they've noticed anything odd about him."

"Well..." Barry tried, "He doesn't like the Big Bang Theory. I think that's pretty strange."

I couldn't resist cracking a smile. "Barry, I'm serious. I don't know - have you noticed any curious behavior, or seen him do anything unusual? Bridges is determined to find a lead on him."

His smile faltered. "Well, I don't know what to tell you. Harrison Wells is a good man. If Bridges is looking for a story on him, he won't find it, unless he wants to hear about Dr. Wells' fervent hatred for Sheldon Cooper's 'supposed lack of character development'. Wells hasn't done anything wrong, Iris, and I can promise you that. I'm sorry I can't help you with your article."

I furrowed my eyebrows, but smiled.

Bridges would be _pissed._

"Oh, well, that's fine. I still have an hour left, before I'm due at work," I affirmed weakly.

Barry gave me a hopeful smile. "I heard you and Eddie spent the weekend at the pier. How'd that go?"

My insides lit up.

Really, Barry and I barely spent any time together anymore, and just being here with him made me heart flutter, for the weirdest reason.

Maybe this little lunch date wouldn't be so bad.

Lunch _meetup._

Not a date.

"Oh, it was fabulous!" I blazoned, "We went to go watch _Someone Like Her_ at the seaside drive-in on Friday, and the next day, he took me out to breakfast at Romero's, which was really nice, then we went over to the amusement park at the boardwalk, and-"

Barry's phone rang.

"Oh, Iris, I'm so sorry-" He answered hurriedly, and his face immediately brightened with a genuine smile as he spoke into the phone, "Oh, hey, _you..._ No, I wasn't doing anything important... Yeah... What's up?... What?!... _NASA_?!... Wow, Artemis, that is just... You're kidding... NASA?... Wow, I'm speechless...No, I _want_ to be there for this. I'll be over in just a sec..."

So, I thought.

 _Artemis_ was responsible for ruining my lunch with Barry...

He looked over at me with a sad smile, pressing the phone against his shoulder as he collected his car keys and coffee. "Hey, Iris, I'm really sorry - I gotta head back over to the lab. You wouldn't _believe_ what Artemis just-"

"It's fine," I responded, forcing a smile, "Go."

"Aww, no, I am beyond excited for this. You know your accomplishments mean so much to me... No, I love _you_ more," he sang into the phone, before looking over at me with a sad smile, "You sure it's okay if I leave?"

"I don't mind."

He grinned at me again. "Thanks. Love you tons."

I wasn't sure if he was talking to me or Artemis at that point.

"Bye, Barry..." I replied, but he was already on his way out by then.

Remember when Barry was obsessed with Wells? Reading his books, randomly spouting quotations he had said at any given moment, worshiping the man like a god?

Multiply that obsession by a hundred - no, a thousand - _no_ , a thousand million. Swap out Wells for Artemis. Now, put Barry in a close, intimate relationship with his new icon, and as an added twist, have her return his feelings, and obsess over him to her full capacity.

It didn't take effort to find them annoying.

They were either giggling uncontrollably at things the other had said, or were messing around, holding hands, fulminating over the weirdest things together, lost in their devotion to each other like two love-struck nerds.

When I had tried to tell them about an article I was writing about a crazy misogynist cult taking hold in Gotham City, the two of them began ranting about the aesthetics of medieval witchcraft, as if paganism was the single most intriguing thing in history.

Another time, I had reached out to Barry, asking if he had wanted to go see the new fossil exhibit at the Central City History Museum, knowing how much of a fanatic he was for that kind of stuff. He solemnly apologized, saying he had already booked the event with Artemis, but I was more than welcome to come with them if I wanted.

I declined.

Later on, Eddie and I had tried going on a double lunch date with them, which was honestly pretty anticlimactic, since they were either confusing us with their science gibberish about some new quantum particle discovery in Germany, or showing us adorable pictures they had taken on trips around the world together to foreign conventions in Paris, New York, Tokyo, among several other cities - which made Eddie unbelievably jealous.

"What does someone like her _see_ in a guy like him?" He accused softly, once they had left, "He's so... _average."_

To be truthful, the real question to ask was what _Barry_ saw in _her_...

You know... _aside_ from the fact that she had redefined the world of science altogether and was the greatest thing to ever grace the world of science with her presence...

Or her hard-working, down-to-earth and extremely headstrong personality...

Or her adorably delicate, geeky charm...

Or the fact that she fussed over and spoiled Barry like he was the most wonderful thing to ever exist...

Or her consistently increasing wealth and fame...

Or her... You know what?

Forget I asked.

I guess the final straw would be all of those times we would actually having a good time with the two of them, before both of their phones would go off, and they'd receive mysterious phone calls and they'd make up some garbage excuse on their way out, before they left altogether.

At any rate, Artemis was out for yet another convention/conference/exposition, this time in Melbourne, by herself.

Seeing how it just so happened to be Christmastime, Barry was back with Dad and I to spend the holidays with us, as Artemis _unfortunately_ wouldn't be back until after New Year's.

Heh...

I placed several mugs of eggnog on a tray, and smiled as I brought it into the living room, where Dad and Barry were both lounging around on the sofa, the Christmas tree hardly adorned yet, watching an old holiday musical on TV.

"Uhh... these ornaments are _not_ gonna hang themselves," I chided coyly, showcasing the tray, "Grandma Esther's recipe, light on the bourbon."

Barry and Dad both grinned like little kids as I handed them their mugs.

"Mmm," Dad remarked, furrowing his eyebrows in surprise, "Always loved your definition of 'light'."

Barry took a huge sip before giving me a satisfied grin. "Thanks, Iris."

I smiled back.

Pretty soon, an annoying ringtone went off, and Dad sighed as he pulled out his phone.

"And the Christmas tradition continues," he muttered, before putting the phone to his ear, "Detective West. Yeah... Oh... Alright."

He slipped his phone in his pocket and returned the barely touched mug. "Sorry kids. DA wants to ask me some questions. Make sure there's some 'nog left for me when I get back."

Barry smirked as he took another mouthful.

"No promises..." he murmured in singsong.

The second Dad left, I eagerly rubbed my hands together and switched off the TV.

"What's happening?" Barry inquired, shocked as I snatched away his precious drink and pulled him off the couch with both hands

"Come on!" I giggled as we sat in front of the tree.

"Aww, you have _got_ to be joking," he chastised, rolling his eyes, "Christmas isn't for a few days. We haven't even decorated the tree yet."

"Couldn't wait any longer," I replied, giddy with excitement. I searched through the boxes until I found a tiny pink one, labeled _For Iris; From Barry_ and placed it in his hands, before I took it away from him as just fast, "No, wait. I wanna open mine first."

He chuckled and shook his head disapprovingly as I tore off the wrapping paper, and opened the lid of the box, slowly gasping as I saw the contents.

"My mother's wedding band?" I murmured in disbelief.

My heart melted, as the two silver rings elegantly shone on their crisp chain.

"It's a replica, yeah," Barry explained with a shy smile, "You were devastated when you lost the real one..."

"At our fifth grade field trip-"

"To the zoo," we answered together. My heart warmed.

Really, this was such a beautiful gift...

"Here," Barry offered, holding out his hand. I dropped the necklace in his hands and turned around, pulling my hair to the front so he could place it around my neck.

"I can't believe you remembered..."

Barry locked the clasp, and pulled away, smiling at me. "Yeah, it was Artemis's idea, actually."

Oh...

###

The rest of the week was pretty shitty.

Having Barry to myself _without_ Artemis around turned out to be just as annoying as having them together. It's like his mind wasn't even at home. He couldn't stop talking about her, or her inventions, or the things she'd say, and how bummed he was that they couldn't spend their first Christmas together...

 _First_ Christmas.

Like he wanted to spend every Christmas after with her as well.

I was going to be sick.

I didn't know why, but something changed in him after he began dating that girl. Yeah, he was happier and smiled more, and really - she _did_ love him, so it was sweet to see them together, and I was happy for them... But at the same time, I _wasn't._ Something about being with Artemis changed the friendship Barry and I had. He just... wasn't as interested in spending time with me, as he had been before, like he saw me in a new light. He didn't seem to prioritize me as much anymore. Which wasn't true - Barry did love me, and the two of us were the bestest of pals, but... But he just wasn't the Barry I had grown up with anymore.

To make matters worse, the _Flash_ seemed to be on the same boat as well. He rarely visited me nowadays, and when he did, our meetings were short and clipped, and extremely lackluster. He usually only stopped by when he needed intel published in the paper, or a similar task done, and barely stuck around to make conversation - as if he too had lost fascination with me. Now, he too had been won over by the dark-eyed physicist with the messy black curls back at STAR Labs, whom he delivered metahumans to in order to get them treated, usually dramatically thanking her and giving her a handsome smile before zipping away.

"What other girls?" He had once told me.

Yeah...

 _That_ other girl...

I was in the living room, trying to type up that article on Wells for Bridges - but I barely had any information, so there wasn't much of an article to type anyway. I flipped back over to Facebook to give my mind a break.

That wasn't the best of ideas, because 'Artemarry' dominated my newsfeed. Nowadays, everyone seemed to be liking posts and articles about her.

As expected, Barry was the worst with this. His profile was an Artemis Van Kleiss fanpage. Cheesy posts about how proud he was of her, and stuff about her work at STAR Labs, and their relationship, and pictures.

So, so many pictures.

Selfies.

Group photos.

Emoji-adorned snaps.

Pictures of just her.

Pictures of him with her.

Pictures of him with her, along with the other scientists at STAR Labs.

At home. On dates. At restaurants. On hikes. At pristine beaches. At the Eiffel Tower. In Times Square, New York. At awesome-sounding international conferences. Smiling. Arms around each other. Hugging. Kissing. Making faces. Laughing-

"Baby?"

I almost dropped my laptop in surprise and quickly turned around.

Dad was watching me with a sad look in his eye, hands at both of his hips.

"Oh - hey, Dad," I acknowledged nervously, "I didn't know you came back home..."

Dad exhaled softly, and walked over to me, removing his coat. "You've been scowling at pictures of Barry and Artemis for almost half an hour now..."

"Oh, yeah, I needed to find that one link he posted, and I..." I stuttered, before I closed my eyes and sighed.

Several quiet, tense moments passed.

"Are you jealous of her?" He finally asked gently, furrowing his eyebrows.

"I - no, Dad, of course not..." I mumbled, looking away, "I..."

Didn't know what to say.

 _Was_ I jealous?

Of course not - Eddie was the perfect guy for me.

But... Barry-

"Iris, it's Christmas Eve. I hate to see you sulking, especially on the holidays," Dad cajoled, "Why don't you and Eddie go spend some time together? Do something nice?"

Wow?

That was a new one.

Dad resented me and Eddie being together.

I must have been looking extra gloomy for him to say that.

He sat down next to me, tapping his knee like he did when he was anxious, or uncertain about what to say.

I had been tapping my knee as well.

Genetics was nice that way.

"Dad?"

"Mmm?"

"Theoretically speaking, what if I _was_ jealous? What would you tell me?"

He gave me a sad smile. "Then, theoretically, kiddo, I'd tell you he's not in your league. He's not backing out of that relationship anytime soon. You and I both know he's very happy where he is. And you _are_ with Eddie..."

"That's why I said theoretically, Dad," I responded, forcing a light laugh.

He planted a kiss on my forehead. He gently smoothed out my hair, studying me sadly.

"Look, I gotta run," he murmured, "Put your laptop away, and go do something fun, for once. It's been all work and no play for you. When I get back, you had better be enjoying yourself. Got it?"

"Got it."

He smiled and kissed me again, before taking his coat and leaving.

Well...

Eddie was with his aunt, uncle and cousins, out in Coast City. Linda and Chanel were out ice skating - something I didn't really feel up for.

I sighed as I went to my room upstairs, and pulled my comforter down to the living room, and cozy-ed myself up on the couch with the lights off and my Vampire Diaries DVD set, ready to binge-watch.

I had only watched two episodes when the front door opened again, and Barry entered, crinkling his eyebrows at the sight of me.

"Uhh... hey," he greeted, "What's going on down here?"

"Nothing," I mumbled, as I watched Elena and Stefan on screen.

Barry studied me for a good second, arms folded across his chest.

"Don't give me that," he finally chided, moving over to sit next to me, "I've known you since I was six years old. If there's anything I've learned about you in that time, it's that you only hole yourself up like this when you're down about something and need someone to talk to."

I sighed deeply.

Really, there was no question when it came to this guy.

"Do you have anywhere else to be?" I asked numbly.

"No?"

"Then do you mind if we spend a little time together?" I mumbled, ignoring the odd guilt coursing through me, "Ever since you began dating Artemis, you barely make time for me anymore."

I could make out a puzzlement glinting in eyes, against the light of the TV screen.

"Umm... sure..." he answered, though he seemed _very_ unsure, "What... would you like to do?"

"Just sit with me and watch Vampire Diaries," I muttered, suddenly realizing how having the lights off and the blanket out may have made my request seem much more vulgar than it was.

Then again. This was Barry. We grew up in this house together. This shouldn't have alarmed him.

Slightly uncomfortable, Barry scooted a bit closer to me. He tensed when I rested my head on his shoulder, but eventually calmed down.

"Vampire Diaries..." he scoffed quietly, pulling out his phone, "I honestly think the CW can do way better than shows about silly mythological romances."

"What, like _you_ have any better suggestions?" I retorted, glad to be joking around with him again.

"Aren't vampires a bit overrated by now?" Barry questioned, focusing on the game of Tetris on his phone's screen, "Tall, pale immortal guys with perfect abs who do nothing other than feed on blood and always fall for the same kind of female protagonist? Go through the same kind of drama? Shouldn't girls be bored with that stuff at this point?"

"Why?" I inquired, "Does Artemis not like vampires?"

"No?" Barry responded, as if it should have been obvious.

"So, does she like werewolves? Is she a Teen Wolf kinda girl?"

"Nah..."

"So what does she like, then?"

"Huh?"

"Mermaids? Dragons? Game of Thrones? Supernatural? The Walking Dead?"

Barry paused.

"I think she just likes speedsters."

 _"Speedsters?!"_

"Yeah... her two weaknesses are smooth-talking nerds, and smooth-talking speedsters," he answered, smiling adorably, "God _forbid_ she should ever find herself a smooth-talking nerdy speedster."

"You're...not worried about that?" I questioned, furrowing the blanket up to my chin.

"What do I have to be worried about?"

"The Flash literally flirts with your girlfriend every time he sees her, and you _just_ said she fancies him," I answered, "That doesn't ring any alarm bells?"

"Iris, 'fancy' and 'like' have two entirely different meanings. And if I had to be worried about my girlfriend cheating on me, she wouldn't be my girlfriend," Barry concluded, "I don't have any reason to distrust her. The Flash isn't going to come in between our relationship anytime soon, anyway."

Oh.

So Barry trusted her, despite the Flash meeting with her.

I was never lucky enough to enjoy that kind of trust with Eddie.

"Well... she's... extremely fortunate to have you," I replied wistfully.

"You sure you're okay?" Barry asked again, frowning sadly, "You... seem as if there's something bothering you."

"I'm fine. I swear," I conceded hastily, leaning against his stomach, "Just stay with me. I'll feel better. I promise."

What should have been a fun, cozy night with my best friend soon turned into an unavoidable confrontation.

Every time his phone vibrated and her name popped up on the screen, he immediately gave it his undivided attention, not looking away from the bright rectangle for a good 30-40 minutes, missing entire episodes.

I'd be lying if I said it wasn't pissing me off.

For the first one or two episodes we watched - " _watched_ " - together, I let it slide. The man really did miss his girlfriend, and seriously, it _was_ Christmas, and she was on another continent, alone, without her lover.

Their situation _was_ kind of pitiful.

But then, he just persisted with it. Continuous texting, ignoring the comments I was making altogether, smiling at every response he received instead of at the TV screen.

Really, I had reached my limit with it hours ago.

"Dude, can you stop?" I snapped, snatching his phone away, glaring, "It's been more than four hours now. I get that you miss her, but I asked you to spend time with me. Don't you think you're being inconsiderate and obsessing a little too much over her?"

Barry stared at me expectantly.

I immediately felt horrible, and placed his phone back in his hands.

 _"I'm_ the one who's being inconsiderate?" he murmured, pulling away as I tried to lean back onto him.

"Iris..." he scorned quietly, "I _loved_ you."

"Barry, I'm sorry. I-"

"I loved you ever since we were kids. Before I even knew what love really was," he continued, his tone disapproving, yet hurt, "You never knew. You went ahead and dated so many boys in front of me, and Joe'd force me to tag along with you, and I never once complained."

A heaviness filled my chest.

"I never told you..." he scoffed, looking away, "Things might have been different, if only I had told you. But after I lost my mom and my dad, I was scared that I'd lose you too, if you didn't feel the same. And right when I had built up the courage to confess to you, I got struck by lightning, and when I woke up, you were with Eddie. All those times you two kissed in front of me, all those times you secretly confessed to me about him, telling me you loved him, and all those times I had to third wheel with the girl _I_ had loved for all of my life - I never said a word, no matter how much it hurt me to see you with him... I thought it was okay, because you were happy with him, and I didn't have the right to be selfish and snatch that happiness away from you."

Tears sprang into my eyes.

"And - and when Artemis moved here, _everyone_ was pressuring us to be together. You, Eddie, Cisco, Joe... You all told us we'd be perfect for each other. _You're_ the one who pushed us together, Iris. And she really does love me. You should've seen her, when she had fallen for me and knew that I loved you instead. You should've seen how she continued to support my feelings for you, even when she had wished those feelings were for her. You gotta hand it to her. And to me. We both had unrequited feelings for someone who liked someone else," he continued, frowning, "You can't blame me for moving on, when I had someone else who was unconditionally dedicated to me. You can't blame me for loving her, after everything she's gone through because of me. I'm sorry for obsessing over someone so selfless, who cares about me, and prioritizes me like she does, Iris."

A lump formed in my throat. "Barry-"

In his lap, his phone lit up with another message. He picked it up and rose from the couch.

"Now, if you don't mind, the woman I love is stuck, all alone, in a country she has never been to before, and will be spending the holidays by herself," he described quietly, leaving the room, "Allow me to be inconsiderate, and keep her company through text messages, so she doesn't feel lonely."

###

The next day - _Christmas!_

The air outside was crisp and chilly, the house was decorated, stocking were hung on the fireplace, Andy Williams was jubilantly singing "Let it Snow" on the stereo, presents were bunched up underneath the tree, the air smelled like pine and gingerbread cookies, and we were all wearing floppy Santa hats and cozy sweaters.

I was miserable.

And Barry was too.

I'm not sure if it was the fact that I was avoiding him, or he wasn't talking to me, or all the goddamn _tension_ in the air - that gave Dad the idea something was wrong...

Dad ordered us to clear the kitchen together after breakfast, before leaving the room - clearly signaling for to work out whatever was wrong.

Barry had been the first to try and apologize.

"Everything okay?" he mumbled, gathering the plates, "I didn't mean to be a jerk last night..."

"It's fine," I replied, sweeping the floor.

"I'm sorry if I said something that hurt your feelings. I don't know what came over m-"

"Quit being so inconsiderate," I teased, forcing a grin, "You have nothing to be sorry for."

He crackled a tiny grin, and held a fist out to me. I fistbumped him, and I guess that put an end to the tension.

But not to my misery.

As was our annual tradition, we threw a small party. Eddie showed up first, then Cisco, Caitlin and Wells, some of my friends from the CCPN, as well as Lieutenant Mark Briggs and Captain Singh, with his husband, Rob. Guests came and went.

We passed around 'nog, ate warm, buttery cookies, laughed and overall, had a great time. Barry and the crew from the lab seemed a bit hung up that Artemis wasn't there, and even David, Mark and Rob were kinda disappointed.

It was astounding how much love there was for this one person.

At any rate, our celebrations carried on well into the afternoon, and Linda, Chanel and the rest of the officers left, leaving us with just Eddie and the trio from the lab.

We were all in the process of exchanging the gifts we had brought for each other, when the doorbell rang.

"I was wondering when the carolers would show up," Dad remarked, turning.

"I'll get it," I interjected, beating him to the door. Upon opening it, I saw Artemis smiling at me, dressed in a blue pleated dress and white cardigan, holding a large gift bag.

She... wasn't supposed to be here.

"Iris! Joe!" She exclaimed, smiling, "Hey! Merry Christmas!"

"Artemis!" Barry shouted from the living room.

In the blink of an eye, he appeared in the doorway, pushing us both to the side to smother our newest guest in a boa-constrictor hug, pulling her against him in a deep, dip-style kiss, surprising her.

"Barry!" She gasped sheepishly, blushing brightly once they broke away, her hands at his chest, his arms still wound around her, "That was... quite the welcome back."

"Artemis!" Cisco yelled, pulling her right out of Barry's arms and tackling her in a hug.

"Oh my god!" Caitlin squealed, running forward to fasten herself onto their hug as well, "We missed you so much! How'd you get back here?"

"Well," Artemis declared, winking at Caitlin, "You wouldn't believe how easy it is to fake a stomach flu and exchange a flight ticket in Australia. I wasn't going to miss Christmas with you guys."

"Aww, that's great!" Cisco raved, as they all walked back inside, "Barry was actually crying yesterday, because he missed you and wanted to be with you for Christmas."

Barry blushed deeply, but grinned. "No, I wasn't!"

"You were," Dr. Wells chirped apologetically, once we were all settled back in the living room, "Cisco sent proof over Snapchat."

The other two women grinned at him. Barry brushed brighter still, and put his arm around Artemis. "Yeah, well, you can't blame me. Two weeks away is too long."

"Yeah, it's not like you have any family you could be spending the holidays with," Eddie chuckled.

Everyone turned and gave him questioning looks.

He began to fluster. "I mean - wow, that came out pretty insensitively. I didn't mean-"

Artemis smiled and gently slapped his shoulder. "It's cool. I wouldn't spend Christmas with anyone else, anyway."

"Even though you don't endorse Christmas?" Wells countered with a crooked grin, sitting up straight in his wheelchair.

Artemis shrugged. "I mean, it's implausible to _actually_ believe an immortal man in a red suit flies around the world on a sleigh led by flying caribou, and shoves himself down a chimney to give every child in the world either the toy they've always wanted, or a lump of coal. If I spent two hundred bucks on a present for a couple of kids, I'd want them to thank me, not some fictional entity who supposedly resides in the North Pole - which is climatically uninhabitable, by the way."

Barry pouted at her. "You wouldn't want your kids to believe in Santa?"

She shook her head, confused. "No?"

"But... but that's horrible!" he protested, "Kids _love_ Santa! He's timeless! Everyone looks up to him, and kids write him letters, and leave cookies out for him, and-"

"It's physically impossible," she maintained, "There's no point in believing in what can't physically exist."

"Artemis, you live in a city where people can fly, erupt into fireworks, shrink themselves, and run at the speed of light," Dad listed, smirking, "This is ground zero for 'can't exist'."

"I'm a scientist," Artemis answered, "I stand for what can be proven. _Metahumans_ can be proven-"

"What if Santa's a metahuman, then?" Eddie interrupted.

She shrugged nonchalantly. "Like I said, I stand for what can be proven. All sensibility refutes Chris Cringle's existence."

"I'm just putting it out on the table right now," Barry continued, shaking his head disapprovingly, "If we get married and have kids together, I will _not_ standing for any of this 'Santa doesn't exist' stuff. Our kids are gonna be drawing Santa pictures, and mailing him letters, and they're going to stress over Santa watching them, and they're going to behave themselves all year long for the sole purpose of landing their names on the 'Nice' list."

 _"Woah_ ," Cisco interjected, a grin spreading on his face.

"Woah indeed," Artemis conceded, furrowing her eyebrows, "I'm not sure what's stranger: you fanboying over Santa Claus or you bringing up us having kids."

"I'd pay a million bucks to watch you two have an adorable argument about Santa's existence in front of your kids," Cisco answered.

"I would too, actually," Eddie agreed.

Dad exhaled and rolled his eyes, shaking his head in false disapproval. "You kids are insane..."

"Change of topic," Dr. Wells cut in, sighing as he pinched the skin between his eyes, "Artemis, you arrived just in time for the presents. Cisco, you were opening your gift. Could you please continue?"

And so, we all went back to exchanging presents with each other. Really, it was a pretty uplifting time. Almost all of us had a satisfying amount of gifts in our possessions by the end of the little exchange, save for Artemis, who nobody had expected to show up anyway.

"I promise," Cisco urged, "I did get you something, but I didn't bring it because I thought you were coming in next week. I'll give it to you tomorrow."

"I had the same idea in mind," Caitlin added, "Your present is sitting at home, all wrapped and ready to go."

Artemis chuckled. "Guys, it's honestly not even an issue. I didn't fake a flu and cancel my appearance at the Australian OMICS Convention and race all the way back here to pick up presents."

"Yes. Tis better to give than to receive, isn't it?" Dr. Wells conceded, gesturing towards the giant gift bag she had left by the door, "I knew you wouldn't have come back empty-handed."

Artemis grinned at him, and retrieved the bag, and made us all feel like shit for not having anything for her by giving us some pretty impressive and thoughtful presents.

I got expensive designer perfume - from _Paris._

"Aww, thank you so much, Artemis!" I gushed, hugging her.

Eddie was given a pretty neat smartwatch, a model that hadn't even been released on the market yet. Caitlin got tickets to some art event she was a fan of, Cisco was given a Star Wars poster, autographed by Hayden Christensen (you best believe he damn near passed out), Dr. Wells got a sculpture he had been looking to add to his private collection (he _hugged_ her, out of appreciation. He _actually_ hugged her!), and Dad had himself a gorgeous, elegant new set of glassware.

"I think that's all of them," she sighed, cracking her knuckles with satisfaction.

Everyone smiled at her.

"Where's my present?" Barry asked innocently.

She froze.

"Shit..." she whispered, becoming flustered, "I know I had it here somewhere."

Barry smiled politely. "Hey, relax. You didn't need to give me anything."

She ignored him, continuing to fumble around as she sifted through the scraps of wrapping paper littering the floor. "No, I know it was here somewhere... Just hold on."

Caitlin raised her eyebrows, frowning. "Artemis, it's-"

"I found it!" Cisco exclaimed, slapping a gift bow onto her shoulder, and pushing her towards Barry, " _You're_ his Christmas present. There. Problem solved."

"Ingenious..." Dr. Wells muttered.

Artemis scowled and reached for the giant gift bag she had brought, and turned it upside down.

A lonely piece of green wrapping tissue fluttered down to the floor.

"Barry, can you go check to see if it fell outside?" She finally asked.

"What?"

"It - it might have fallen in the driveway. Could you go see?"

"Umm..."

"Please? I'm super tired. I just got back from my flight, like, an hour ago, and since then, I was at home, finalizing the presents," she pleaded, wringing her hands, "And it's cold outside."

Eddie and Dad furrowed their eyebrows, and Barry blinked at her very strange request.

"I mean, I guess?" He responded, getting up and walking out the door, shutting it behind him.

The second he left, her lips curled into a tiny knowing smirk.

"Okay... What did you do?" Caitlin asked.

"Oh, you're up to something," Cisco amazed, narrowing his eyes at her.

Her smile grew brighter still, and she shrugged one shoulder.

The seven of us sat there in awkward silence for the next two or three minutes.

"So..." I stated, "Do we-"

Barry barged back into the house, clearly agitated. He was breathing fast, and kept running his hands through his hair, like he did when he was scared or unnerved.

"That's it," he stammered, pacing back and forth, "We're done. I'm breaking up with you. You've - you've officially lost your mind."

Artemis's smile melted off of her face. "Umm. That is _not_ the reaction I expected."

"What's going on?" Eddie interjected.

Barry grabbed Artemis by the bicep and forced her to her feet, pulling her outside.

"So... What do we...?" Dad questioned.

"We follow them."

Outside, Barry was half shouting, half crying at his girlfriend, and she stood there, smiling with her arms crossed.

Once we got closer to them, we saw why.

With a sharp intake of breath, I saw the brand new black BMW sitting next to Dad's SUV, an extra large bow sitting on its hood.

Dad's eyes widened to the point where I was worried they'd pop out.

Eddie and Cisco numbly walked over to it, mouths hanging open, dumbfounded.

"This is too excessive!" Barry begged, "You can't just - you can't just buy me a _car._ You have to take it back. I can't have it."

"Yes, you can," she asserted coolly, "You love cars. And it really wasn't an issue for me-"

"No. No, Artemis, I don't _need_ a car," he contended, his voice quivering, "This is insane. You - you know I don't need it. You have to take it back. _Please."_

She smiled at him. "Look, Singh always catches you when you try to use the 'my car broke down' excuse. Now you'll actually have a car you can blame."

He pressed his eyes shut and covered his face. " _No._ No, that's a horrible reaso-"

"Dude. You love taking my car out, and I don't say anything, but I actually need it sometimes," she chided gently, "Now we won't be running into that issue anymore."

"Artemis, I don't need it," he answered meekly, new tears brimming his eyes, "You have to return it."

"Barry, I _can't,_ " she protested, "I've already signed it off, and everything. It's been registered under your name. It belongs to you - it's yours. Besides, people get suspicious of you saying you walk around everywhere, if you know what I mean."

"Artemis, no..."

"Bro, you can totally give it to me if you don't want it," Cisco stuttered, unable to peel his eyes away from the BMW.

"Or me," I added.

"I third that," Caitlin affirmed.

"Barry," Artemis responded, her tone soft, "Please?"

"No," he whimpered, turning away, his hands covering his mouth. He awkwardly walked an entire circle around the car, right past my frozen boyfriend, before he stopped and buried his face in his arms, on top of the car's roof.

"Cisco, you should've videotaped this," Caitlin murmured, "This is Artemarry gold."

"Better now than never," he answered, whipping out his phone and pointing it at a guilt-ridden, speechless and emotional Barry.

Artemis walked over to him and put a hand at his back. He slowly uncurled an arm and slung it around her, faintly trembling.

"And here we have it folks," Cisco commented, "Artemis and Barry, at their finest, proving the world that they'll always have surprises up their sleeves."

Eddie exhaled, as if someone just breathed life back into him. "A car. She bought him a car for Christmas."

A jingle of metal was heard, and Artemis smiled as she held up a set of keys. "Care to take it out for a test drive?"

Barry shook his head no, but Artemis planted the keys in his hands, and gestured for the rest of us to join her. Cisco and Caitlin ran forward, and with coaxing, an emotional Barry sat himself down in the driver's seat, glancing around the interior of his new gift in amazed disbelief, still in denial. Artemis took shotgun, Cait and Cisco in the back. Eddie joined them too.

Dad, Dr. Wells and I watched in stupefaction as the car purred to life, and Barry backed it out of the driveway, the other four wearing gleeful smiles as he drove them away.

"A car," I repeated, "She bought him a car."

Dad frowned as he spoke up, finally making sense of the situation. "A car is not a girlfriend gift. A car is a happily-married-for-8-years wife gift."

"Trust me," Dr. Wells muttered, his tone almost dark, "I disapprove as well."

"I - I don't disapprove," Dad clarified, "I just... she didn't need to get him a car. I get that they're in a happy relationship. Letting him move in with her is one thing. But... spending thousands of dollars on him in bulk is... Unsolicited. They've only been together for, what, five months?"

"Five months. Two weeks. Four days," I mumbled, before turning away and going back inside.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

Barry wanted to give me my present in private.

After he emotionally drove the car around the city for a while, he went and dropped Cisco, Eddie and Caitlin back at Joe's for Christmas dinner, and drove the car back onto the highway, with just the two of us.

"Where are we going?" I asked, glad to be alone with him at last.

"You'll see..."

I knew I'd get bashed for leasing him a car. Everyone would judge, or say I was trying to 'trap' him in our relationship, or burden him with it. But _heaven_ knew he loved driving just as much as running, and seriously - the more he used his powers in public, the higher the chance of him being exposed as the Flash.

Plus, he looked extremely content, driving with one hand at the wheel, a small confident smile on his face.

"I'm guessing you like it?" I teased.

"No," he answered coolly, "You're returning it the second we go back to the city."

"But you like it."

"No, I don't. I never asked for this," he continued, unable to hide his smile, "I appreciate you looking out for me, but this is too much. I can't take this."

"Barry?"

"Yes?"

"You're a complete dork."

He chuckled and shook his head in disbelief, and merged onto an exit, and soon we had arrived at the entrance of a natural reserve. He parked, and quietly stared at the car that he just exited, no doubt still in denial/astonishment.

"Cisco was right," he finally murmured.

"Right about what?" I questioned.

"When he said you were my Christmas present," Barry answered, crossing his arms, "I'm more than overjoyed right now that you're here. Being with you is more than enough for me. Artemis, a car-"

I pulled myself into his arms and brought my lips over his, silencing him. The weariness in my bones from a long week of travel thawed, and he curled his arms around me, gently pushing me against the car, deepening the kiss. We continued making out like teenagers for a good while or so, before he took me by the hand and led me into the woods.

"This is Red Forest Natural Park," he described, "It's one of my favorite places in the city. My parents used to bring me here, when I was young. We'd go camping here."

"It's a gorgeous place..." I noted.

Really, it was. A kaleidoscope of leaves littered the soft path, and sunlight glittered through the canopy above us. The air was crisp, earthy and peaceful, and all was silent save for the sound of the little chipmunk that scurried across the path in front of us, and birds chirping somewhere far off.

"Funny story," Barry continued, delicately squeezing my palm, "The last time I came down here was when Andrew kidnapped you, and we had no idea where he had taken you. I had searched every inch of the entire city dozens of times to no avail, and I was scared witless. I'm pretty sure I would have searched the entire globe if I needed to until I found you."

My heart warmed at his words. "Don't forget, though. When I showed up again, you yelled at me and called me names, Singh tried to arrest me, and Iris punched me in the face."

"And then I promptly showed up at your apartment at 2 in the morning to apologize, and I had kissed you for the first time."

I smiled. "It was on my cheek."

"You remember?"

"Why wouldn't I? Even though it wasn't even a real kiss, I couldn't stop thinking about it."

"And then you started crying and told me you were going to hunt down the Flash, and expose him to the public as a fraud, and I went home wanting to hide under my blanket from guilt."

"What can I say? I'm a true romantic."

Barry pulled me in closer and softly kissed my temple as we walked. "I'm really glad we've gotten past that stuff. I mean, for all that we went through together - keeping our feelings to ourselves, the secrets, and Dr. Wells forcing you to work twice as hard even though he kicked you out of the Lab all the time, and everything involving the other speedster, we've come pretty far together, and I'm really proud of that."

"You kidding?" I inquired, lovingly roping an arm around his back, "Being with you is probably the best thing that ever happened to me."

Barry raised an eyebrow, smiling, and slung an arm around my shoulders. "You're an internationally acclaimed physicist, you got an honorary doctorate from the world's top school, your inventions are making positive changes in practically every field of science, you've made multi-million dollar business deals with some of the greatest energy magnates in history, and you're saying the best thing that ever happened to you... is me?"

I stood on my tiptoes and reached over to kiss his jaw. "I could care less about the fame and the money. You, on the other hand, probably get tired from running through my mind all the time. But seeing how you're a speedster, running shouldn't be an issue for-"

A hand was gently clamped over my mouth. "Secret identity. _Secret_ identity. Just scream it out to the entire world, would you?"

I grinned, and pulled his hand off of my face, wearing a cheesy grin.

"Hey! _Everybody!"_ I yelled, into the open "My boyfriend is a superhero!"

Barry clamped his hand over my mouth again, an alarmed look in his green eyes.

I giggled, and he fought my silly stubbornness with kisses, hugs and tickles, until we had reached a dark blue snake of water, coursing under a wooden railed bridge. He took me by the hands and led me over to the highest point on the bridge, before quickly towing me forward into his arms, and slowly kissing me.

"You and I are both Marvel nerds," he stated, holding both of my hands, "And we both know that, both in fiction and in reality, it's always hard for the superhero to find love. And back when I was obsessed with Iris, my friend Oliver told me that guys like us never get the girl, and for a while, I actually believed him."

"Who's this Oliver guy, again?"

He smiled. "You know Spider-man, right?"

"Your friend Oliver is the real life _Spider-man?!"_

"No," he chuckled, rolling his eyes, "But you do know Spider-man, right?"

"Tall, awkward dark-haired science nerd who secretly saves the day in a red suit designed to help him move faster?" I chirped, "Yeah, I might know a thing or two about the subject."

He smiled, and kissed my forehead. "There are times when I feel just like Peter," he continued softly, "All his life, he was a scrawny geek, in love with a glamorous aspiring journalist who was always out of his reach, and dated bigger, tougher guys-"

"You're comparing Iris to Mary Jane?"

"But his life completely turned around when he gets his powers. Then, he meets a new scientist who he falls in love with, and really, he just reaches a whole new level of happiness when he's with Gwen."

"Um," I stammered, knitting my eyebrows, "Doesn't Gwen die a horrible death at the hands of Peter's enemies, and Peter ends up marrying MJ inste-"

He put his hand back over my mouth, a playful, daunting light in his eyes warning me not to bring that up.

He put his hands at my waist, gently tugging me closer to him. "I'm just saying, Artemis, _you're_ my Gwen. The superhero _can_ get the girl in the end, and I don't know where my life would be without you. You're not really just a girlfriend to me, because you mean more to me than you'll ever realize."

My heart warmed, and we both leaned forward to embrace each other, and he kissed the top of my head before tilting my face up to kiss my mouth.

"So..." I answered, blushing once we reluctantly pulled away. I couldn't help but feel slightly queasy in his closeness, and in the loving warmth of his words. He had wanted to give me his present alone, and now, we were taking a romantic walk alone in the woods, talking about how lucky we were to have found each other.

I prayed this wasn't going where I _thought_ it was going...

He raised an eyebrow in question as I nervously took a step back.

"Please don't propose to me," I blurted out awkwardly, before wishing I could shove the words back down my mouth, "I - Not that I don't love you, but I - I - I love you and all, and I get that you're the fastest man alive and that our relationship is going fast too, but, like, I am not ready to get married already," I stammered stupidly.

Barry raised both eyebrows, appalled.

"I - I'm super sorry if you went and bought a ring and everything, and if you were planning on giving a speech and getting down on one knee, but I'm literally only 21 years old, and - and we've only been dating for five months, and - and it's not you. It's totally me-"

Barry's eyebrows tipped even higher, and he cautiously took my hand. "I... was not going to propose," He interrupted, his voice calming.

"You weren't?" I squeaked, blushing from embarrassment.

"No?" He replied quietly, gently shaking his head.

"Really? You're not lying, are you?"

"Don't worry," he assured, with a small chuckle, "I would never be dumb enough to propose to you."

"Oh," I answered, feeling relieved, "Good... Wait, _excuse_ me?!"

"-this _early,_ " he corrected quickly, with a tiny grin, "I would never be dumb enough to propose to you this early. I agree that it's too soon, for both of us, and we both have our immature moments, and I would never try to burden you with a serious decision like that, not until I knew you were ready."

I smiled, and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.

"Still though," he countered, a playful threat in his eyes, "I call dibs. And you're not going _anywhere_ unless and until the world is falling apart and on the verge of destruction, and the only chance at restoring world peace is by you leaving me, but even if that happens, I'm telling you right now: I _will_ find a loophole. You're mine, and mine only."

"Whatever you say, you little drama queen," I intoned, though I felt as if I was glowing on the inside. Barry was probably the only person on the planet who could get away with telling you he wasn't going to marry you yet.

Yet.

He took me by the hands, and led me over to the apex of the bridge.

His face flushed, and I could tell he was nervous. "Call me unoriginal, but I kind of wanted to keep up an unofficial Allen family tradition..."

He then slipped out a long rectangular box, wrapped in gold paper, out of his pocket and gave it to me.

"Open it."

Insides swarming with too many feelings to be distinguishable, I nervously undid the gold wrapping paper, revealing a long wooden case, hinged closed. I carefully unlatched it, finding a vintage-style watch inside, with cognac leather straps, and an elegant white and silver dial.

"Oh..." I murmured in admiration, "It's beautiful."

Barry smiled, and held his hand out. I gave him back the box, and he took the watch out of it, placing the straps around my wrist.

"This was my mother's favorite watch," Barry explained, carefully fastening the watch onto my wrist. "My dad actually gave it to her as a gift on their first Christmas together. He brought her all the way out here for the first time, to the same spot we are now, actually..."

My heart skipped a beat at his words.

He secured the watch and took my hand in both of his.

"He told her he wanted to spend every Christmas with her. I'm guessing it _worked,_ because they were happily married for more than twenty years afterwards," he added nervously, "I'm hoping that that kind of magic will work on us as well..."

"Barry, that's... I don't know what to say," I mumbled. Trying to stop the tears from welling in my eyes was useless by that point. I threw my arms wrap arms around his frame, and pressed my eyes shut in vain.

"You just won the award for most Heartwarming Christmas Present in the history of heartwarming Christmas presents..." I squeaked.

"Not so fast, Van Kleiss," he replied, smiling as he touched my nose, "I have the keys to my dream car in my pocket. You win this one by a landslide."

"You said you didn't want to keep it, though," I answered softly.

"I won't return the car if you won't return the watch."

"Touché."

Barry smiled gently as he took my jaw in his hands, cradling it really, and rested his forehead against mine. "I really do love you, Artemis," he whispered softly, "And it means so much to me that you found a way to come back to me, on Christmas, of all days..."

"Barry..." I murmured, folding my arms against his chest, "I'll always find a way to come back to you, no matter where I am."

Before I could cringe at how cheesy that sounded, he had covered my mouth with his in a perfect, passionate kiss, his hands curled into fists against his chest.

###

"Where _were_ you both?" Joe asked, opening his front door when Barry and I both returned, "You've been gone for almost two hours. It's Christmas, not Valentine's."

"Highway patrol pulled us over," Barry replied sheepishly, pulling the yellow slip of paper out of his pocket to show everyone.

"For speeding?" Cisco, Wells, and Caitlin all asked in eager unison.

"I - no, for driving too slow, actually," Barry conceded awkwardly.

Eddie chuckled. "Dude, you've had that car for barely three hours..."

"Driving too slow?" Iris asked incredulously, "What were you both doing that caused you to get a ticket for driving slowly on the highway?"

Barry and I looked at each other, and I felt heat rise in my cheeks.

The traffic had been slow.

And we were impatient. And slightly lust-ridden.

We... kind of began making out.

Like mad.

And idiotically managed to ignore the fact that the traffic had almost immediately picked up, or the sounds of car honking.

And, in the heat of things, completely forgot that it was illegal to stop a car in the middle of the highway.

Oops.

Barry nervously scratched the back of his head. "Um... We, uh, there was an accident-" He looked to me for support.

I panicked.

"The car's really hard to control, actually," I described stupidly, "Really, it's so new and all, and accelerates pretty quickly for its own good, so we had figured it was better to drive carefully, and... and that's why we took so long."

Oh my god... That was the worst lie... I should've just let Barry take the fall for us.

I wanted to hide my face in my hands, like he was doing.

Six faces smirked at us, curiously raising their eyebrows.

"Are you sure it was the _car_ that couldn't be controlled, Artemis?" Someone chimed flirtatiously.

"I mean, we all know something - or someone - or maybe some _two_ , who are also 'accelerating pretty quickly for their own good'."

"You know, for a man who studies criminal cases for a living, you should know how to come up with an alibi by now, _Barry."_

"You said you drove carefully?" Dr. Wells inquired skeptically, "If you were careful, you wouldn't have had that ticket."

"What's that one Einstein quote?" Caitlin asked.

"Stop," Barry muttered, face flushed as he handed me a plate so we could join them at the dining table.

"The one about gravity making people fall in love?" Cisco answered.

"No, the one about driving safely," she responded.

"Alright, alright, let's let the two paramours have their dinner," Joe chided, though he too was smirking.

"Where did you both go, anyways?" Iris asked with a kind smile, as Barry and I took seats on either side of her.

"We went for a small walk out in Red Forest Park," Barry explained, placing generous servings of food on his plate.

"Did you give her your present?" Eddie questioned.

"Was it an engagement ring?" Someone else asked.

"They're getting married!" Another voice squeaked excitedly.

"Please - no," Dr. Wells muttered, rolling his eyes.

I smiled and held my wrist up. "It wasn't a proposal. He gave me his mother's watch..."

"Ooh," Caitlin remarked, "That's sweet."

Iris turned and faced Barry. "Is that the watch your dad-"

"Yeah."

"Oh," she murmured, her smile faltering, before she faced me, grinning kindly again, "Well, that's an adorable gift."

I smiled back at her. "What about you? What'd Eddie give you?"

She pulled out a small white box.

 _He proposed to her!_ I thought gleefully, before my smile dimmed at the sight of what was inside.

A key.

A boring, manual key.

The necklace Barry had given her with the engagement rings was a _far_ superior gift than a mere key.

"He asked me to move in with him," Iris explained with a hopeful grin, "I said yes."

"That's great!" I responded, squeezing her shoulder, "I'm really happy for you."

"Yeah," she replied, looking away, "I'm happy for you too..."

###

"I'm actually really glad Eddie and Iris moved in together," I told Barry, when we came back home, "They deserve the same kind of happiness we have."

I then promptly kicked my shoes off, let my coat fall to the floor, and fell face-first onto the couch, exhausted.

"Jet lag?" Barry asked, sitting down and carefully lifting my head onto his lap, stroking my hairline with one hand while slipping my glasses off with the other.

"Jet lag. Airline food stomachache. Feels," I mumbled, "Lots of feels."

"I see..." Barry responded, assessing the suitcase that was carelessly left by the couch, and the shreds of wrapping paper I had left behind a few hours ago, "You know, you kind of overdid it with the presents..."

"Shush."

He hooked his hands under my arms and shifted, so he too was lying down across the couch, and I was on top of him. "No. You shush," he ordered quietly, gently hoisting me higher so we were eye to eye, "You've been doing nothing but exceed our expectations. And you're making the rest of us lowlife mortals look bad. You need to be stopped."

"Excuse me?" I asked incredulously, "I need to be s _topped?"_

Barry grinned, and in a single fluid movement, he had an arm folded over my back and the other at my jaw, bowing my face forward. "I'm kind of a superhero, Artemis. I'm supposed to stop the crazy ones."

Unable to repress a smirk, I folded my arms under his neck and drew my mouth over his in a deep, warm kiss. He kissed back just as fervently, before stealing my breath away when his tongue softly flicked against the roof of my mouth.

Part of me wanted us to stop right there.

We... never really managed to get very far anyways, whenever we tried this, and it left us feeling embarrassed and ashamed at our own inabilities.

The lasting guilt wasn't worth the fleeting momentary pleasure, now, was it?

A more demanding part of me urged me to continue. Screw logic. I hadn't seen Barry in damn near two weeks. Hearing his voice through a phone was nothing compared to this. Texts and Facetime were nothing compared to being with him in real life, to physical intimacy - to placing soft kisses down his neck, while his hands soothingly rubbed from the nape of my neck down to my waist.

We both had our fair share of surprises this Christmas.

Maybe we had a few more in store as well...

I brushed my lips back over his, and bunched his stupid Christmas sweater in tight fists, fidgeting with the buttons at the collar.

He responded with a slow, open-mouthed kiss, tugging my dress's zipper down to the small of my back, and with a quick twitch of his fingers, felt my bra go loose against my chest. Fingers caressing the bumps and ridges of my now bare spine, he propped himself up on one elbow, pausing only to undo my hair and let it fall loose, before he was tenderly cradling my jaw again, the kiss growing more provocative than I was used to.

I probably shouldn't have been used to anything when it came to him, but then he slowly let his hand travel down the front of my torso, and with a jitter flowing through my body, I realized I could worry about that later.

 _Much,_ much later.

Undoing the small buttons at his sweater was tricky, what with his kisses addling my mind, but I was almost halfway through before he removed my arms from his chest to guide the dress down my shoulders, his breath warm against the crook of my ne-

 _Ring! Ring! Ring! Ring!_

I groaned and collapsed on top of him, my cheek against his chest. He sighed in defeat, his face flushed as all heat between us cooled down. He muttered a curse under his breath as he fumbled, extending an arm to pick up his phone off of our coffee table. He kissed my head in apology before answering. "Cisco. This had better be important."

 _(There's been a break-in at the gold depository.)_

"Can't the security guards handle this one?" Barry complained, softly stroking my exposed back, "I'm busy."

 _(The guards are kind of standing against the wall, staring down gunpoints. We need metahuman reinforcements.)_

"Ugh."

 _(It's just this one robbery, Barry. You can go back to getting cozy with Artemis once you put these guys away.)_

"How'd you know I was getting cozy with Artemis?"

 _(Because you just told me.)_

Barry immediately hung up on him, and I moved away so he could get up.

"I'll be back in just a second," he announced, slipping his feet back into his shoes, buttoning his sweater back up.

"Don't get shot." I ordered.

He smiled back at me, loosely sweeping his fingers through his hair in a poor attempt to tame the damage I had done. "No, it's okay. I can go get beat up, and then come back to you half-dead, then you can romantically nurse my wounds and we can make love after. Spider-man style, right, Gwen?"

His idiotic commented resulted in me throwing a sofa cushion at him.

"I'm joking," he cajoled, laughing as he let it hit him. He leaned back down to brush his lips back over mine.

"I'll be back soon," he explained, once he pulled away, "I expect to find you upstairs when I return."

A crisp _whoosh!_ , and he had left, and I was all alone again.

Don't get shot, you fool, I thought, placing my head down on the couch. I closed my eyes, and put my hand over my heart, surprised by how fast it was beating because of him.

I counted the seconds as they passed, waiting for him to return, and tried to steady my shaky breath.

"You're still here?" Barry chastised, closing the door behind him.

"Hey - you were gone for only sixteen seconds!" I replied merrily, holding my arms up to hug him, before my head suddenly hit the back of the couch as he surprised me with a thorough kiss, lacing his fingers through mine.

"It doesn't take sixteen seconds to take a dress off," Barry chided, a playful, determined glint in his green eyes, before quickly swiping his hands down my body, " _See?"_

He chuckled as I yelped in surprise at my new state of partial undress, my dress circling my knees.

He yanked me up for a kiss, and I tripped only a little as the dress caught in my feet.

He laughed at my clumsiness between more kisses, but then he had to pull away when I lifted his sweater over his body, discarding it to the floor, and slowly - barely touching him - ran the blunt ends of my fingernails down his lean, hardened abdomen. He shuddered, his muscles contracting under my touch, and wearing a lopsided smirk, he picked me up. I wrapped my legs around his narrow waist, and the two of us touched and gently newly exposed skin as we finished working the last of our clothes off of each other, carelessly leaving our clothing behind, trailing the stairs.

Slamming the bedroom door shut behind us, Barry set me back down on my feet, sliding his hand down my waist to guide my panties down my legs, the other hand forcefully holding me in a thoroughly passionate kiss. His skin was tingly against mine, and my mind went blank as he pulled away, his lips tipping up in a dark grin, a determined lust in his eyes. Cold adrenaline shot through my back as I intercepted him in another slow kiss, his hands finding my hips, and he walked us over to the bed, finally laying me down on my back.

###

"Oh my god," Barry breathed, voice heavy with worry, some time later, "I am _so_ sorry."

I failed at suppressing a wince as I tried to sit up to evaluate the damage he had done, wishing my heart would stop beating so fast, wishing I could breathe properly.

Chaffed, raw skin, where we had been in contact.

White frictional burns down my torso, patching my arms, searing across my mouth, the sharp pain on the insides of my thighs.

We... we hadn't even done anything.

We had just been kissing each other.

He had been making a show of kissing every inch of my body, and my fingers were lost in his auburn hair, before he rose, and pulled my wrists away from his head, playfully scolding me for getting in the way. I shot back with some knee-jerk remark, and he returned with a crooked smirk, gathering my hands in his. "So be it, then," he had said, his voice quiet and dark. He had pinned my hands down high above my head, sensuously crushing my lips against his, letting the warmth grow between us as he laid his body directly over mine, skin to skin.

But then the warmth _didn't_ stop growing.

And _he_ didn't stop until I was screaming in the back of my throat, my mouth smothered shut by his.

He immediately shot out of the room, and returned in the span of a heartbeat, dressed in an old gray STAR Labs shirt and black sweats, holding a tube of salve, a role of band-aid wrap, and clothes, his expression filled with apology.

I was still struggling to steady my breath as I took the ointment from him, and fretting with worry, he helped me.

There was a fragile tension in the air, and he made a cracking sound in the back of his throat. "Artemis, I am so so sorry," he whispered, an intense, fluid sadness taking his eyes as he helped set the last of the bandages.

"Barry, it's okay," I replied automatically, though, to be honest, I certainly didn't _feel_ okay.

He sniffled, and once my torso, thighs and arms were fully covered, I slipped into the clothes he had brought me.

Barry turned, facing away from me, and moved over to the edge of the bed, shivering as he lay down, his back to me.

"Barry, I'm fine," I persisted, crawling over to him. I slipped my arms underneath his, hugging him from behind, trying to reassuringly squeeze his hands. "Don't be like that. It - it wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was."

I reached a hand up to stroke his cheek.

His face was wet, and he was still trembling as he sniffled.

Gathering whatever strength remained in my jelly limbs, I forced him to turn over and face me, and I tucked his head under my chin, hugging him tightly and stroking the back of his head in an effort to console him.

He weakly held my sides, refusing to stop weeping apologies.

Yeah.

So much for our fair share of surprises this Christmas.

* * *

 **Thank you all for reading! ^u^**

 **Hey - if you guys don't mind, could you please leave reviews if you've read the entire chapter? I've been getting very little feedback for these past few chapters, and I really do spend a lot of time on this story, while also balancing a full load of summer classes and a job. Knowing how you react really helps me enhance the next part of the story as I write. Even the tiniest comment can make the biggest difference! :)**

 **For those of you who have been consistently leaving reviews and comments, and have been strong in supporting me through messages and other means - I REALLY LOVE YOU SO MUCH, AND PEOPLE LIKE YOU HONESTLY MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE! *sends lots of heart emojis***


	23. Fast, Present, Future

**[One month later]**

 **[Dr. Wells's POV]**

So, New Year's ended with a bang.

Life went on at Artemis's and Barry's home.

Except it didn't.

They were stuck, arms crossed, facing each other with scowls, unsure of how to overcome their differences.

It's not like these obstacles weren't there before, but because of their overly-infatuated honeymoon period, they had been under the misconception that they had "completed" each other.

Given the fact that they had been at this for almost half a year now, they were beginning to tire of each other, and for the first time, they realized they weren't balancing each other out.

They were rivaling one another.

She was getting tired of his overly careful mentality. He began to question her impulsive decisions.

She hated how slow he could be at times. He secretly resented her brash ways.

She didn't like how trusting he was of people he barely knew, warned him they could hurt him. He disapproved of her being so patronizing of others.

She tried her best to keep him safe, protect him from harmful threats. He told her she needed to back down, and quit being so possessive.

She said he was too accepting. He told her she was too intolerant.

He could be too laid back. She was too competitive.

He was relaxed, and went with the flow. She was stubborn.

He could be too open for his own good. She was too closed-minded.

He was mellow. She was quick-tempered, so on and so forth.

At any rate, she was a Thawne. He was an Allen.

They were meant to be enemies, not lovers, so what could you expect?

Tiny arguments were born. Small, irritated questions, and worried glares.

At first, they tried to move around their differences, and be accepting, and tried to give in to the other's requests as often as they could.

After all, his happiness was her first priority, and vice versa.

But then... But then the tiny arguments didn't stop.

Their fights were subtle at first, ending calmly, with apologetic kisses and a nice date, gift, or cuddles to make up for it, but every once in awhile, their squabbles spiraled out of control, their irritation turning into a newfound anger, before settling into hot spite. They picked fights over the smallest of things.

Over their lack of time for each other, over the cars, over dinner not being prepared, over uncleaned messes, over each other's laziness and immaturity - the list never seemed to end.

The worst part had to be his almost threatening control of her.

Granted, he wasn't aware of it, but she secretly blamed herself for all of their problems, always let him be the good guy - which ultimately was proving to be her downfall because in her eyes, he was never wrong, and had every right to yell at her.

At the end of the day, she was the one who came crawling back to him, with apologies for fights she hadn't started, asking for forgiveness, believing she was "a disagreeable bitch", thoroughly convinced she was bringing down their relationship.

In turn, he was frustrated with himself. He swore to her that he'd try to be more gentle around her, promised he wouldn't argue. He - he had no idea what came over him, why he was being so unreasonable with her all of a sudden. He took her hands in his and told he did love her with all of his heart, and solemnly apologized for making things difficult for her. He couldn't live with her feeling guilty for what he did.

He'd kiss her, she'd kiss him back, and empty promises melted away headaches.

Then the cycle continued.

At the current moment, they just had yet another argument. They were in their living room, sitting next to each other on the couch, and it was near bedtime. She was scowling, with her arms folded. He was leaning forward, elbows against his knees, hanging his head, at a loss for words.

"Barry."

"What is it now?" He muttered slowly, his tone surprisingly sharp.

She nearly flinched at his irritation with her, but kept herself composed, save for her frightened shivers.

"I - I hate it when we argue," she explained softly.

"Good," he answered, "Because I'm not enjoying it either."

"Barry?"

"Mm?" He replied, this time gently.

"What happened to us?" She inquired, her tone cautious, not wanting to aggravate him further. "We used to be so happy together..."

He sighed and straightened his posture, and roped a strong arm over her shoulders, pulling her in for an awkward side hug. "It's a phase. It's gonna pass. All couples go through it."

He didn't see it, but her eyes were watering with warm, unshed tears. She blinked several times in a poor effort to keep her emotions at bay. "How long will this phase last?" She squeaked, her voice cracking, "We've been arguing for an entire week now, and I can't stand it. I want us to go back to what we were. I hate it when we pick on each other. I - I don't want you to hate me. I can't forgive myself for making things worse for you."

He frowned as he faced her, and put his hands on her face, gently brushing away her tears from her eyelashes with his thumbs.

"No, don't cry. Please don't cry," he urged gently, cupping her neck, "Artemis, I don't hate you. You're not making anything difficult for me. This is just a bump in the road. It'll pass. We're both just a little testy, that's all. We'll get over this."

He dropped a quick kiss on her nose.

Her bottom lip quivered, and tears spilled.

"I don't want to break up with you," she pleaded, sniffling again, weakly lifting her arms to embrace his chest. He tucked her head against his chest, one hand on her back, the other stroking her hair.

"We won't break up," he comforted, wearing a small smile, "How dare you say the b word. Tsk tsk, Dr. Van Kleiss. What's with all this pessimism all of a sudden?"

She sniveled again, burying her face against him.

"Hey," he cajoled, holding her jaw, "Don't be like that. Smile for me."

"No," she mumbled stubbornly, her voice muffled.

A grin tipped on his mouth, and he ran a finger under her jaw. Flinching from the ticklish sensation, she caught his hand, forcing him to stop.

"Smile," he ordered again, in mock sternness, "Or I'll tickle you."

"No."

"Smile."

"I said no. I don't want to."

"Then God help you," he murmured, his hands catching his waist, tickling her in quick, jerky movements. She broke out in light, sheepish giggles, falling backwards to get away from him, but he persisted, wearing a cool smirk as she laughed against his touch, her face turning bright red. She was futilely thrashing her legs, unable to kick him away as he relentlessly tickled her, not letting her breathe.

He finally stopped once her laughs turned to breathless coughs, and leaned over her, giving her a second to catch her breath before covering her in an apologetic hug. They lay there in silence. He brushed his nose against hers.

"I'm sorry if I've been cold," he finally concluded, his tone wistful, "I don't know why I keep doing this you, or how this keeps happening."

Her hands balling into small fists against his chest, she closed her eyes and kissed him.

"It's okay, dammit. I've been the one instigating our fights, not you," she mumbled, "You have nothing to apologize for."

He smiled back, and slipped both hands into her shirt and up her chest, his movements gentle and steady. Closing her eyes, she pulled her arms around his shoulders, anchoring herself against his soft touches, and her smile grew into a dreamier, peaceful one, her breathing quietly hitching under him.

Taking advantage of their new heated intimacy, he began lacing slow kisses into her jaw, and down the soft slope of her neck.

"I have everything to apologize for. I've been pushing you away, and taking my anger out on you, and neglecting what you've been asking of me," he whispered into her skin, slowly sliding his fingertips down her stomach, into the fabric of her shorts, "And I don't want us to be like that."

I practically slammed my fist into the control panel in a hurry, shutting off the surveillance cams as he began peeling the fabric off of her lithe body. An involuntary growl was born in the base of my throat.

I heard someone clear their throat behind me in the time vault.

Nobody should have gotten in here, I thought, as I quickly turned my head around.

My blood curdled as I saw Barry, leaning against the display case holding my speed suit, watching me expectantly.

No, not Barry.

A tall, lanky figure, dressed in a black and red flannel shirt, and dark jeans, relaxed as he ate salad from a plastic bowl.

Dark eyes, and hair that was an unruly black instead of a wavy auburn, a harsh glint to his youthful smile.

"Hey, Gramps," he chirped nonchalantly.

"Henry," I acknowledged firmly.

Henry was a speedster from the future.

To be more specific, he was my grandson - the future son of Barry and Artemis. A few months back, he time-traveled back to the present to save me from certain death before he swiftly beat me to a pulp, threatening to kill my family in the 25th century if I separated his parents.

I frowned. "Is that the salad from my office downstairs?"

"Yeah," he answered a little too nonchalantly, smiling innocently as he cleaned out the bowl, "Hope you don't mind. Us Thawnes are killers for a decent watercress, am I right?"

"Don't be too proud of your lineage," I muttered, crossing my arms. "You're just as much one of them as you are one of us. You shouldn't be in this time period anyway. How long have you been here?"

"Long enough to know you watch things you shouldn't?" He responded, frowning with an eyebrow raised, "I mean, seriously. She's your own daughter, and that is disgusting, not to mention extremely invasive, and I understand you need to keep an eye on them, but going that far? That's pushing the limits, Eobard. I thought you were civilized-"

"I may be their enemy, but I'm no savage," I asserted coldly, "I don't watch more than I need to see."

"Right," he replied skeptically, handing me the empty bowl before gesturing towards my suit in the case, "I realize I may have left a few strings untied the last time I visited. For instance, how are you going to get home now?"

"Same plan as before," I replied, though uncertainty settled through me, "I teach Barry everything I know. Then I..."

His expression softened, and he folded his arms over his chest. "Then what?"

My heart thawed at the memory of my two boys, lost in the 25th century, and my wife - perhaps the only woman who would ever love me. I needed to kill Barry to see them again. But if I killed Barry, then Henry's time remnants had promised to kill my family before I could ever get back to them.

Meaning, if I killed Barry, my wife and sons would die. If I let Barry live, then I'd die.

Nobody could win.

As long as Henry existed, I was stuck here, and I had no surefire way of eliminating him from existence. Not with my family at risk, I didn't.

"What are you going to do about my mom?" He inquired.

"What about her?" I asked, scowling.

"I've been keeping an eye on everything that goes on. I mean, I am your blood kin, right? I gotta make sure my timeline carries out like I need it to," he joked, before turning serious again, speaking gently, "But you're confusing me. You're not really doing anything anymore. And that can't be right. You're the manipulative, conniving one here. What are you up to, Thawne?"

"I... I don't know..." I whispered, turning away. I rested my arm against the wall, and closed my eyes.

Lost.

That's what I was.

Bring Artemis to my lab, whet her into giving me the scientific tools I needed, then manipulate her into destroying Barry, and in her rage, she'd rival me too. By using her, I would have found myself with a weapon so powerful, Barry would never stand a chance, and I'd be able to use him to let me go back home, and kill him.

That had been my plan.

But it all changed.

I failed to estimate how weak I truly was. I failed to understand my own feelings.

I felt happy around Artemis.

The problem was I wasn't sure why I was happy... Was it because I was guiding her towards fulfilling her destiny, and she was going to get me what I needed? Or because I was proud of her, and fearlessly beginning to accept her as my daughter?

On top of all that, she began to harbor strong romantic feelings for the man she'd need to destroy, which might make things difficult...

And now, Henry was standing right in front of me - proof that their love wasn't temporary.

I was afraid of the growing comfort I felt around her, and how easily I was becoming attached to her and beginning to care for her.

For the first time in a long time, I could smile. Not a forced, necessary smile that I rarely wore around others to fake happiness in this disgustingly ancient city.

But a true smile, one that left my nerves jittery, one that came from the heart. And that smile came whenever I was with Artemis, working with her, assessing the things she created, and spending time with her.

Despite the two of us having different goals, she was more like me than I had expected. She had the sharpest mind I had met in a long time, and a daring personality that came with it. She had revamped the field of science at a young age, just like I had, in the future. We both shared similar pet peeves, laughed at the same jokes, agreed that politics should go hand in hand with science, playfully disagreed over each other's tastes in music, were both addicted to the same disgusting tea, and we both had a habit of taking off our glasses before saying something important. Most importantly, we both had a shared fascination with Barry Allen.

I stand corrected. Very different kinds of fascinations with Barry Allen.

Against my own will, I felt a new air of love and comfort around her, and had developed a fatherly connection to this girl - to the daughter I had once willingly abandoned.

I had once felt nothing but hatred and annoyance towards her, and now, after seeing her through a father's eyes, letting her grow close to me, my feelings had changed into love.

Remorse and pangs of pure self-hatred washed through me when I thought of everything I had put her through.

Traumatizing her at the age of six - six! she was only six! - killing the Van Kleisses, abandoning her to a childhood filled with nightmares and sadness, before Lin stepped in and turned things around.

I couldn't believe how selfish I had been with her, subjecting someone so pure, with so much light in her, to such horrible torture, to the one person I actually had a connection to here, other than that fool Eddie.

Barry - Barry, I could care less for... But Artemis...

Henry frowned at me. "You're torn inside..."

"I'll figure something out. I'll get back," I said, more to myself than to him, "One way or another, I will destroy your father."

"I don't know," he murmured, shrugging, "I'm not too keen towards letting you kill my dad. I kinda like him..."

I muttered something insensible in response.

"Maybe... maybe things can change, between you and him," he suggested softly, "Stop with this nonsense. Stop hating him - I mean, you have no reason to. He's a good man. He looks up to you. He doesn't deserve you taking advantage of him like this. Confess who you are and be honest with everyone about what you want. Stop manipulating them. You have a chance at forgiveness. They're not murderers. They'll take you back, if you ask for help."

I exhaled slowly, looking away. "I think you're forgetting the part where I killed both of their mothers in cold blood, stabbed her father in the chest, and subjected his to a life sentence. I have no chance at forgiveness. Not with them."

He walked over to the display case, and pressed the face of my golden ring, sucking the suit back into it. He pulled it off of its holder, and tossed it into my hand.

"Look, you're a genius physicist, and a very powerful speedster. But more importantly, you're a mentor, and a father," he assured, "You have so much potential in you for good. You don't need to be the bad guy, Thawne. Destroy this persona. It's beneath you. There is another way towards getting what you want. This isn't your only option."

His words slowly sank in, drowning out my thoughts.

An easy way out.

A new change.

Hope.

"No," I replied reluctantly.

"No?" Henry inquired.

"No daughter of mine is going to warm up to the man I hate," I answered, a stubborn hatred coursing through me, "I won't stand for it. She doesn't need Barry."

"But you need Barry," He muttered, narrowing his eyes, "What part of me saving your life didn't you understand? You keep me from being born, and it's your own funeral. Think about that. Just swallow your ego for once and accept that you can't win."

What part of me saving your life didn't you understand?

I remembered all too clearly.

A few weeks back, Henry time-traveled to present day to save me from killing myself at the hands of electron matter, in order to fix his timeline. Unfortunately, this meant that if I erased him from existence, he would never be able to go back and save me, and I would automatically die.

"I don't care," I whispered arrogantly, "The Flash is my enemy. He's Artemis's enemy as well."

"Are you blind?" He challenged, scowling darkly, "They love each other. You don't need to step in between that. He'll only be her enemy - they'll only hurt each other - if you push them down that path. You don't need to do that."

"Romantic love is temporary, and it's a weakness, Henry," I answered, looking him in the eyes, "You're young. You're naive. You're an Allen. You wouldn't understand."

His scowl contorted into a murderous one. Sadly, I saw myself in his expression. "That is the most ass-backwards ideology I have ever heard. What about your wife, then, huh? Is your love for her weakness as well?"

"Leave her out of this!" I snapped.

"You're only saying love is a weakness because you know that if you let my parents stay together, they'll destroy you. I'm offering you a solution. You have an opportunity to right your wrongs, and go back to your own time, guilt-free. All you have to do is promise you'll stay out of their way. I'll - I'll help you, if you need it. You are family, after all...

I turned away, avoiding his gaze.

"No family of mine associates with my enemies. I know what I'm doing."

I heard him huff, irritated and angry.

He grabbed me by the front of my sweater and forcefully yanked me closer, one sharp vibrating hand pointed at my chest. "No, you don't know what you're doing," he affirmed, his voice hard, "You're being stubborn again. You have the chance to change things, and you're missing it. You, and you alone, can end the rivalry between the Thawnes and the Allens. Our families don't need to be adversaries."

"You don't get it," I muttered, fearlessly ignoring the strength with which he was holding me, "Our families are only adversaries because of them."

"No," he growled, his voice filled with pain, shaking his head in disbelief, "No. That's bullshit. I refuse to believe that. You and you alone started this nonsense. You end it."

I exhaled, unable to find my voice. His eyes searched mine for an answer.

"Please. Don't do this. You'll be responsible for endless carnage," he urged, shaking my collar as he spoke, "I'm not saying this to be selfish. I've- I've lost everything, at this point in my life, and I have nothing to gain. I came to you now to let you know that I've seen what happens in the future to the three of you. To Cisco, to Caitlin, to Joe, Iris - even that buffoon, Eddie. And it is not a pretty picture. Nobody gets their happy ending. I - I want to change that, but you started it all."

His eyes began to water, and he sniffled, still holding me tightly with his fist. He rubbed away his tears with his fingertips - like Barry did - and faced me with reddened eyes and a flushed face.

"Please. Please, Eobard - Grandpa. Please stop what you're doing, and end all of this suffering. I'll send you back - I'll personally take you back to the future. Just let everyone be."

My heart began to melt in warmth.

Here was my grandson, begging me to show mercy, offering me a permanent solution to my problems.

I felt pure guilt flowing through me.

Really - how much farther could this ruse go?

I did want to see my daughter happy.

I did want her forgiveness, and her acceptance.

But not if Barry was involved.

"No," I finalized, pushing him away, "Barry doesn't deserve everything he has. He doesn't deserve to be a legend, he doesn't deserve to be famous. He owes everything he has to me, and he deserves to pay. My timeline will play out the way it needs to. I will get what I want."

Henry flared his nostrils. "Arrogance. Selfishness. Relentless determination. Typical characteristics of all Thawnes. You'll be responsible for your own downfall."

"You're just a child," I replied, "You don't understand the pain I feel, knowing my daughter lives for my enemy's happiness."

"I may be just a child," he answered, snapping his fingers, allowing a time portal to open in the wall behind him, "But I'm an important one. Go ahead. Stop Artemis and Barry from conceiving me. Erase me from existence, and I'll never save your life. You'll be left with an instant suicide, and you'll lose, permanently."

He pushed the face of the small silver ring he was wearing, and an azure speed suit shot out, in a similar manner that mine did.

"It doesn't matter what you do at this point," He repeated, jolting forward into it, leaving the cowl down, "You can't win, if you push them apart. Remember my warning."

He gave me one last glare, before turning around and surging into the portal, which sucked itself shut once he entered.

Scowling, I took my own ring, still locked in my palm, and placed it back on its holder.

Life-saving grandson or not, nothing had changed.

After everything he had taken from me, Barry didn't deserve to take my daughter as well.

###

In the end, however, I had very little to do with the demise of their relationship.

Artemis and Barry had a rough fight a few days ago - one neither of them apologized for - and the stress of their relationship was beginning to show.

Cisco, Caitlin and I were in her lab, working on a new project together, and Artemis was on the phone, seated at her desk as she dealt with a rather stressful business call.

Barry entered the lab, hands in his pockets, nodded his head at the rest of us, before taking a seat in front of Artemis.

"Mr. Luthor, I appreciate you personally calling me to congratulate me, but I would never use my inventions for applications in the military," she stressed, obviously tired with the other man's persistence, "I understand LexCorp is a mainly philanthropic Metropolitan industry, but it is against my moral code to harness the electron's powers against humans... No, my applications have only been used to help save metahumans, and stop them temporarily. I have never killed... Mr. Luthor, I wish you success in your endeavors, but I personally cannot and will not endorse my technology for such extreme uses. I have nothing else to say on the matter. I hope you have a nice night."

Then she hung up and sighed heavily, holding her head.

"Crazy billionaires," Cisco recounted out loud, shaking his head beside me, "How did the deals with Palmer and Wayne go?"

"Palmer's representatives are great; They just used the electron's power to design a new kind of computer chip that can function without electricity," Artemis replied sullenly, rubbing her eyes behind her glasses, "I have no idea what Wayne is up to. They're a mess, back in Gotham."

Her phone rang again, and she flinched at the sound.

"Let it go to voicemail," Caitlin advised softly, "Just let it go to voicemail. It's probably LexCorp again."

Artemis grumbled, and silenced the tone, before placing her head down on the table.

"Artemis, are you faring alright?" I called out, concerned, setting down the monkey wrench I had been using, "You don't seem very happy..."

It's Barry's fault. I knew it was.

Nothing stressed this woman out, other than her boyfriend.

"I'm a physicist, not a business woman," she muttered, lifting her head, "I was designed to work in a lab, not behind a desk. My brain is wired to build, to challenge, to create, to think - not to haggle over business offers. I've been belittled into an overglorified secretary. I need an assistant."

Of course she'd lie to save his face.

He didn't know how lucky he had it with her.

Cisco smiled sadly. "Artemis, an assistant has no place in a superhero base, unless it's a sidekick."

"Trust me. I hated having to divert my attention from physics when I was in your shoes as well," I chuckled, "It's a small price to pay for your growing success."

She sighed, and her eyes softened when she finally acknowledged Barry, scowling at her.

"Hey..." she whispered nervously.

"Hi."

"You okay?" she asked, her voice small, silently begging for his forgiveness - again.

"I am," he assured, gently taking her elegant hand in his, "But I had a question for you..."

A light fear took her eyes, but she stayed composed. "What is it?"

"Do you remember when was the last time you kissed me?"

"Yeah, of course," she responded, "It was... at our home."

"It was at home," he agreed dejectedly, "It also was four days ago."

She broke eye contact.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you," she murmured, staring at the desk.

Her bottom lip quivered. "I just... I actually don't have an excuse. I've been stressing too much over my work. I'm sorry."

He put on a small smile, and reached over to take her hand. "You don't need to say sorry. I'm the one who needs to apologize."

Of course you do.

You're not as much of a hero as you like to make yourself out to be...

"I've... been acting like a dick recently," he conceded, his tone hopeful, "I know what we have is unconditional-"

"It is," she interjected desperately.

He pulled her out of her chair, and put his arm around her, before knitting his eyebrows and looking at me. "Sir?"

"Yes?"

"When I was walking over here," he explained, "I saw two speedsters."

Each hair on my arms stood up tall. "You saw two other speedsters?"

"Yeah," he mumbled nervously, "They looked like reflections passing through. One of them was me, the Flash. The other was wearing a suit identical to mine, except it was kind of a royal blue color. They both looked right at me before they disappeared."

Reflections, that made eye contact?

This must be time travel...

Barry was either returning from an alternate timeline, or he was walking into one.

Considering that he wasn't panicking his head off, he was walking into one.

A speedster wearing a suit of a royal blue color?

Gee, how many no-good speedsters did I know who wore that color?

"It has to have been an illusion?" I lied, shrugging, "I certainly can't think of any answers."

Artemis looked up at him innocently, gently pulling his sleeve to get his attention. He looked down at her, his expression melting into a smile. "Do you want to show me what you've been up to these past few weeks?"

She smiled weakly, and hugged him, before leading him over to her counter, their arms around each other's waists.

"Well..." she began, assessing the various devices laid out across her counters, "These are all unimportant. What I really wanted to show you is something I hope you'll love..."

"You built me a puppy?" He joked quietly, as she led him over to a strange structure, resembling a 2-foot tall model of the Eiffel Tower.

She grinned at him, and Cisco joined them, appearing beside the machine.

"It's a satellite-operated geo-locator that can track and reveal where any and all genetically mutated persons who have been affected by nuclear radiation, are located and dispersed within reasonable proximity of the city's boundaries," Artemis described, beaming proudly.

Barry blinked at her.

"It's like Pokemon Go, but for Central City," Cisco clarified rolling his eyes, "Metahuman tracker."

"Oh..." Barry responded, furrowing his eyebrows, "That's actually really neat."

"Yeah," Artemis murmured, picking up a tablet computer which she synchronized to work with the machine, "It's still got a few kinks in its systems, though, and I can't figure out what's wrong with it."

She powered on the geo-locator, and on the tablet monitor, three red dots appeared on the screen. "See? It shows that there are three metahumans in the room right now. You, Dr. Wells, and myself," she concluded, laughing nervously, "That's wrong. It should only be you."

That actually wasn't wrong... but who was I to correct her?

Barry frowned, pouting at the machine.

"Here, let me?" Cisco offered, and Artemis handed him a slot-headed screwdriver. He opened up the device's motherboard, tinkered around a bit, before closing it, and wiping his forehead. "That should've fixed it. Honestly, I have no idea why it keeps malfunctioning. We re-stabilized the electron-powered quantum battery inside it, and we know the STAR Labs satellite is working better than ever. It just keeps reading Dr. Wells and Artemis as metas. It's probably biased."

Artemis turned on the mapping program on the tablet again, and this time, only one blinking red dot showed, where Barry was standing.

"I'm actually not liking the way this thing works," she replied, shaking her head before powering it off again, "I wouldn't use it until I can diagnose and fix whatever problem it has. I'm not confident in it."

"Well, it's still pretty awesome," Barry assured with a shrug and a lopsided smile, "We have two of the world's greatest engineers working on it. I don't doubt that when you get it to work, it'll bring the world to its feet."

"Well, thank you, Barry," Cisco chirped, winking coyly.

Caitlin, standing quietly beside me, finally spoke up, smiling, "What they won't tell you is how much promise the geo-locator holds in finding the remaining criminals metas," she described warmly, "Mardon and that vile excuse for a human? Gotham's Garzonas? They don't stand a chance against Artemis's invention."

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

"Hold that thought," Barry answered, before jolting out of the room, letting papers fly off the desks like confetti shot from a cannon. The four of us reconvened in the Cortex quickly, taking our places at the computers, powering on the communications system.

(I need eyes and ears!) Barry urged through the speakers, (What am I looking at?)

"We're getting a really strange distress signal from an alley, in the South District," Cisco described, before he paled as he took the screen in, "Oh, god, no..."

"Not him..." Artemis whispered, widening her eyes before she quickly yanked the mic towards her mouth, "Barry, you have to be careful. The man you're up against is a very powerful and violent metahuman who's been on the loose for a very long time. He - he can control darkness."

"His name is Nicholas Black," Caitlin added anxiously, "And he knows how to melt into the shadows and manipulate the dark. And it's nighttime. He has a group of women cornered on in a dark alley near Willow and Sparrow Lane. Barry - please be careful. There's no traffic cameras over there for us to watch from."

"Light. Try to lure him into the light," I suggested.

Through the comms system, we heard Barry first get the women out of the way and to safety, before he went back and attempted to hunt down Black.

We heard a spine-chilling sneer of a laugh, before Barry gasped.

(Um. I may or may not be lost? I can't see anything...)

"He must be using his powers," Cisco deduced worriedly, "Barry, you gotta get out of there. You're toast."

"Barry - please," Artemis begged.

"Run," I ordered instinctively, "Generate as much lightning as you can. Black's only weakness is light, and it's your only hope."

"This is something right out of a horror movie," Caitlin stated, before hitting the keyboard, "Barry - run!"

FJOOM!-ing sounds were heard through the radio system for a pretty long time, the four of us encouraging Barry along, before he began panting, (I - don't see him anywhere! - I can't - find him! I can't run forever!)

"Maybe he got away?" Caitlin asked hopefully.

"Let's hope so," I answered grimly, "Barry, you don't want to-"

A shrill male scream, heard through the radios, interrupted me. (I'm blind! I'm blind!) Barry shrieked, before he began both screaming and panting in pain, (My eyes! I - I don't know what to do!)

Instantaneously, the four of us began panicking, shouting orders and recommendations, begging for him to find a way out.

"I'll go find him," Artemis shouted, reaching a hand to grab her car keys.

"No!" I growled, grabbing her wrist, before looking at her with worry, "We cannot have two victims here. If you go there, you could find yourself in a worse predicament."

"Wells is right, Artemis," Cisco agreed reluctantly, "Barry's in this one on his own."

(Artemis, use the machine you showed me today! The - the Pokemon one! Please!)

"The geo-locator?" she whimpered.

(Yes! I can't find him, and I can't see! It's my only chance!)

"I - but Barry, it has a 87% probable chance of malfunctioning again," she whimpered, fear-struck, "It might make things worse-"

(Please, Artemis! It could be my only chance at finding him!)

"Artemis, there are no traffic cameras in that part of town," Caitlin urged.

"Barry, you don't understand," Artemis replied, tears rising in her eyes, "It won't work. I - I don't know what to tell you..."

(Do it, goddammit!) he screeched, (For once in your life, just listen to me, and stop arguing!)

Her bottom lip quivered. "Barry, I-"

His tortured, wretched screams sent her dashing out of the Cortex back to her lab upstairs, and Cisco, Caitlin and I stayed, doing our best to help the blinded speedster against his dangerous, invisible foe.

(We have a special kind of death awaiting you, Flash) a cold voice soothed.

(Get your hands off of me,) Barry snapped, before howling in pain.

(Oh, don't worry,) Black crooned, chuckling, (I'm not going to kill you. Mark Mardon and Felipe Garzonas have promised quite the bounty for your living body.)

Caitlin began weeping as Barry let out pained mewls, and began pleading for mercy.

(Stop. Stop. Stop, please,) he begged, his voice crying.

"Barry, stay strong," Cisco urged weakly, to no avail.

Artemis arrived in the Cortex, holding the geo-locator and its tablet accomplice, and we moved out of her way for her to take control. "Barry, he is right behind you. Directly behind you. He's moving away."

We heard an injured grunt, the sound of wind being battered by speed, and Artemis shrieked again, "No! No, I'm so sorry! He's to your left! To your left! This damned machine, it's so-!"

(I got him,) Barry announced, and we heard electricity charge as he took care of his opponent.

(The darkness. It's gone,) Barry continued, relieved.

"You said your eyes were hurt," Caitlin replied, "Can you see?"

(Why don't I just come and show you?) he intoned sarcastically, before we heard the sound of running again.

Artemis screamed and covered her mouth when Barry arrived, cowl down, shivering as he stared her down, dropping a bloodied knife in front of her on the desk.

Both of his eyes had been slashed at, blood and gore washing down his cheekbones, and his suit was shredded in a similar manner, down the torso and across the arms and hands, one hand gripping the collar of an unconscious man in his forties, his face and body covered in fist-sized bruises.

"I take it you're glad to see me, Van Kleiss," he stated, coolly enough, though it didn't take a genius to know he was disgusted towards her, "I was wondering when you'd show up, on the comms."

"Barry," Caitlin warned, a new kind of fear taking her eyes, "Barry, stop it."

Artemis shuddered, staring at the knife, covered in his blood. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, her voice barely audible, as she began weeping again, "I didn't - I didn't know if the geo-locator would work or not, and-"

"Oh, you have nothing to worry about," he assured, grimacing as he tipped her chin up with a bloody hand, forcing her to look at him. She shivered powerfully again, and cowered.

"I mean," he continued, "It's just my life, right?"

"Bro!" Cisco protested, and my hand immediately shot forward to catch Barry's, pulling his fingers away from Artemis's face.

"Do not take your anger out on her," I seethed, giving him my best glare. I would've jumped out of my wheelchair and pounced on him, pinning his neck against the ground, but my logic got the better of me. "You may be injured, you may be partially blinded, but she holds no responsibility for your injuries. Back off."

Barry grumbled something, and disappeared, throwing the man into a Pipeline chamber. Nicholas Black would be dealt with later.

Still bloodied but now dressed in street clothes, Barry returned to the Cortex and placed his ruined suit back on its mannequin, turned away to leave.

"Dr. Snow," I muttered, Caitlin wincing at the sound of my anger, "Treat him. He won't heal on his own."

He gave a sad frown as Caitlin nearly fell out of her chair, startled, and led him back to the medical labs. Cisco gave a shaky Artemis a warm, consoling hug, and took her face in his hands.

"He didn't mean it, okay?" Cisco cajoled kindly, "Barry's just angry and scared because of the meta. He had no right or reason to yell at you. Something's gotten over that man, I swear..."

Artemis said nothing, still quivering as she kept her eyes glued to the ugly, bloody knife on the table.

"He's been like that for so long now," she breathed.

Cisco rose, dropped a sad kiss into her hair, before he stalked angrily into the med bay, slamming the door behind him no less.

"Artemis?" I asked softly, placing a gentle hand at her shoulder.

She didn't respond.

Her breathing trembled as she sat there, frozen in a terrible shock. Scowling, I pulled the knife away and disposed of it. Her eyes followed the movement, before she faced me with bright, lost fear in her eyes.

Oh, to put an end to the man who brought her to this state...

I pulled her weakened body into my arms, hoping it would comfort her.

When I realized it wouldn't, I let go and left her in the Cortex, driving my wheelchair towards medbay, ready to give that SOB superhero a good piece of my mind.

My daughter was not to be his emotional punching bag.

Unfortunately, I found him sedated, lying shirtless on the bed as Caitlin worked through stitching and dealing with dozens of deep knife wounds.

Her and Cisco both looked to me with frowns.

"Sir, was that a side effect of the lightning or something?" Cisco asked, quietly sighing as he shook his head, "Artemis is the last person on earth I would ever imagine Barry yelling at."

"Dr. Wells, their relationship is getting out of hand..." Caitlin questioned softly, her gloved hands tying off another one of Barry's chest cuts, "We all know they're not what they used to be."

"Do you think they need to take a break?" Cisco whispered, color draining from his face, "I mean, did you see that out there?"

"Those closest to us are most vulnerable to pain we inflict upon them," I replied, not wanting to remember how crushed I felt, holding Artemis in my arms only moments ago, "I told you both long ago that involving Artemis in the Team's operations was bad news."

They murmured incomprehensible replies, and Cisco assisted Caitlin in any way he could. Caitlin cleansed, treated, stitched and bandaged every wound on Barry's unconscious body, and I excused them both to go home when they had finished, leaving me alone in the room with him.

I heard them try to talk to Artemis outside in the Cortex before they finally left, and I remember a hot wave of intense hatred washing over me, wanting to reopen each wound on his lame body, wanting for him to feel how hurt I was, wishing I could kill him right there and never see his ugly face again.

But I sighed, and placed a cool cloth on his head instead, wiping away the sweat.

He woke in about an hour or so, eyes drowsily opening, before they suddenly opened wide and he shot straight up.

"Dr. Wells," he stammered frantically, looking around the room, "Doctor - Dr. Wells, where's Artemis? Where is she? Oh my god-"

"Artemis is not someone you can keep hurting," I muttered, glowering at him, "She was willing to risk her life by going out to the South to save you today, when we all stopped her. And she had warned you before that the geo-locator might not have worked, and you could've gotten-"

"I know. I know," he answered, grabbing his shirt off of the footboard, "Where is she? Did she go home? I - I need to apologize to her. R- right away, I have to find her right away."

The door slowly creaked open, and a weakened Artemis revealed herself, her face pale with caked tears, her dark eyes red.

"Artemis!" Barry gasped, shooting towards her to attack her in a loving embrace, "I - I - I am so sorry for what I did. I just turned into a completely different person, and I am so, so sorry, my dear."

A sound cracked in her throat, and she soon broke down into loud, hitched sobs again, and he held her against him, rubbing her back, saying soothing apologies to her, kissing her forehead, her brow bone, her cheeks, her nose-

"You don't deserve her," I snapped.

She buried her face against his chest, weakly clutching his sides, and he faced me with a blank expression. "Sir, what?"

"You heard me," I fumed, digging my nails into my armrest, "You can't treat her like a queen one minute, then berate and invalidate her the next. She's not for you to abuse like that."

"Sir, I'm not abusing her-"

"Yes, you are," I barked, "Yes, you are, Barry Allen. Don't be surprised. You think we haven't noticed? Everything everyone has done for you, and you just taking us for granted? All those nights Joe spent, looking after you, every piece of technology Cisco worked relentlessly to build, solely to improve your survival, each wound Caitlin treated, everything I have done to help you run while being paralyzed myself, and every ounce of pain you have forced Artemis to endure for you, all of us worrying about you - without you saying so much as a thank you? You say you're selfless and caring, and that this is what you were meant to do, but maybe you're not such a hero after all."

"Stop," Artemis pleaded in a coarse whisper as she pulled away, and reached a hand up, placing it at Barry's face, whimpering as she noted the stitches by his eyes.

Maybe I had let my anger go a little too far.

But it felt nice, hurting Barry, taking him by surprise. The bitch deserved it, after all.

Artemis swallowed a sob. "Let's just go home. Please. You need rest. And you do too, sir."

Barry gave me one last glare before he gently swept Artemis off of her feet and zoomed out of the lab.

His scowl reminded me a little too well of the one I had seen on his son's face, a few days before.

Henry's warning came to mind.

###

Now, if you thought that was the worst of it, then "laugh out loud", we barely scratched the surface.

Barry and Artemis grew to resent each other more and more by the passing day, avoiding confrontation with each for hours on end, giving each other the widest berth possible.

Their silence led us to believe they had broken up.

But then they'd be all over each other in Gideon's surveillance cameras, smothering one another with hungry kisses, hastily apologizing to each other, desperate for any means to win each other back.

I could practically hear Henry laughing at me, wherever he was.

The rest of the time, they slept facing away from each other, sometimes one of them would ever pass out on the couch before the other would beg for him/her to come back upstairs, and there were moments when Barry would even stay over at Joe's house, leaving Artemis with nothing more than her tears.

That machine - the metahuman geo-locator - was the root of all their problems.

She worked relentlessly to fix it, but it kept showing her and myself as metahumans, so she was convinced she had set up the wrong genetic polarity, or that there was an issue with another technical aspect, and she was determined to keep trying until she figured out what went wrong. She would win him back.

Barry faced more and more difficult foes, and each time, he somehow ended up in a state that left him begging Artemis to use her device to help him find his enemies. He usually ended up getting socked, and would angrily race back to the lab to yell at Artemis, and at the machine.

Joe didn't know what to do. He certainly didn't want to see Barry upset, but then Barry would be all mushy and guilt-ridden, and would go back to pick up the pieces. Artemis would scream and cry and yell for him to leave her alone, that he was driving her insane and she didn't want to ever see him again, but give him a few minutes of apologizing, and she always ended up giving in, crying and blaming herself in his arms.

Cisco grew cold towards his best friend. Told Barry he had no right to yell at Artemis, and that she was only trying to help him, and that he needed to grow a pair and start acting his age, and 'let the ship sink' if that's what would give them both their peace of mind back.

Caitlin had nothing to say on the matter. She completely ignored him altogether, and would silently enter Artemis's lab room with a bag of Chinese takeout in hand, and try to coax the younger scientist into eating, and assured her that that stupid machine did not correlate to her self-worth.

Iris found out about their relationship issues. She came home late at night once from Eddie's to pick up an old book of hers, and instead found Barry in their kitchen, downing several glasses of tequila in the hopes that he could drown his worries, to no avail.

Worried, she took her step-brother/future husband into her arms, let him cry on her shoulder for a while as she pulled him into the living room, sitting him beside her on the couch, listened to him as he wept, at a loss for words. Eventually, they both fell asleep together on the couch, Barry's head and hands at her thighs, her fingers tangled in his hair.

Eddie had not been happy to find them like that when he came to pick up Joe the next day.

Barry immediately raced home, guilty, and swore never to tell Artemis, and thoroughly avoided Iris as much as he could after that.

The geo-locator malfunctioned three more times since the incident with Black.

The first time was almost two weeks later. They had actually been able to tolerate each other for once, maybe even hold hands. He took her out to lunch, and they both came back smiling. Cisco cheered and clapped when Barry actually kissed her cheek.

An off-the-grid metahuman attack had him shrieking for her to use the geo-locator, and in the end, the Flash had to deliver three crippled bodies to the hospital, unable to save them in time after being stopped along the way several times at the hands of Artemis, who had been encountering difficulties with the machine again.

He returned only to drop off his suit, and raced back to his dad's, not saying a word to his repentant girlfriend.

The second time, a building burned down. Barry saved all of the building's inhabitants, Mick Rory escaped in the nick of time, but there were victims.

Despite saving hundreds of lives from burning in the fire, Barry had failed to rescue an elderly woman's much-needed guide dog.

That didn't sit too well with anyone.

The third time was the worst, and Barry finally decided he had had enough of both the geo-locator, and his useless girlfriend.

Mark Mardon was back, and he was hunting down Joe, wanting to avenge the life of his brother, Clyde. He was working with Felipe Garzonas, a shrewd mastermind criminal with a reputation for rape, and Mardon had traced down Iris.

Barry lost it.

His only request was for Artemis to use the geo-locator, because the STAR Labs satellite wasn't picking up any climatic disturbances, and Barry didn't know how much time Iris had, or who she was with, or what was happening to her.

Artemis complied instantly, scared witless for her friend, and Barry rushed into the city.

But she began encountering glitches with the geo-locator again. Caitlin, Cisco and myself tried in vain to help her, work through the mechanical structure, but the best we could do was accidentally release a spray of sparks right into her unprotected face. Artemis shouted that we didn't have time to deal with the burns, and by some stroke of managed to secure Mardon's location.

Garzonas suggested Mardon hold her hostage in order to lure in Joe, and Mardon had Iris binded helplessly in a secluded room within a fully-inhabited apartment building. But Mardon quickly sensed an electrical disturbance in the air, heading towards them.

The Flash was coming.

The Flash was not supposed to get in the way.

Mardon scolded Iris sharply, and blamed her for using her connections to the Flash for calling him to save her, and seethed that if he had not been able to save his brother, then Joe didn't deserve to save his daughter, either. Mardon and Garzonas left, but not before Mardon summoned a powerful rain cloud and let the building flood faster than the inhabitants could get out.

But then the machine malfunctioned again. Its signal was designed to trace Mardon's metahuman signature, but it became entangled with Barry's as well, and Artemis began yelling for Barry to be careful, that Mardon was nearby. Barry panicked and looked around for his absent attacker, before he began scolding Artemis for slowing him down through the comms, and raced over to the apartment building.

Artemis had made him late.

The first two floors had been thoroughly flooded, the building's architectural structures weakening, the inhabitants drowned.

Barry zoomed around, saved the remaining survivors, then searched the building again for his Iris. He found a terrified and tearful Iris West, bindings over her mouth, tying her hands and feet together, said quick words of comfort before he undid the ropes and got her to safety, and ran to the roof, rapidly circling his arms into forming tornadoes that dissipated the deadly rain cloud.

The police and fire brigade arrived.

Joe took his beloved daughter in his arms, and Barry, still the Flash, hugged her and held her close, promising he would never be late again.

Once the water had cleared, the building had been declared uninhabitable due to the immense water damage, meaning 146 people lost their homes.

Another 23 had died.

This was by far one of the greatest tragedies to hit the city since the particle accelerator, and to top it off, Mardon and Garzonas had both gotten away.

Barry returned to the Lab, at a loss for words. He walked over to the curved desk where we were at, looking at nothing in particular, trying to form his thoughts into a voice.

Artemis looked down, horrified, unblinking eyes studying the table.

He couldn't see it, but her hands were trembling like mad.

"Barry," Caitlin spoke softly, "Barry, it wasn't her fault."

"23 people," he responded sullenly, eyes tunneling onto a shameful Artemis, "If I hadn't been late, 23 people would still be alive."

Artemis shuddered.

A fat teardrop landed on the desk.

"It was my fault," she whispered, her voice cracking, "I let those people die."

Cisco gulped, and reached for the geo-locator. "No, no it wasn't. The machine kept receiving bad signals, and-"

"Artemis, Iris could've died because of you."

She shivered again, and I could see her jaw quivering, as she tried to hold back sobs.

"Artemis?" he asked again, softly.

She didn't answer.

"Artemis, I could have lost her permanently."

"B-Barry," she whimpered, nervously looking up at his hurt face, "Barry, I'm so sorry. I - I did everything I could, and I - I know what she means to you. I was sc-scared too. I love her just-just as much as you do."

"You love her just as much as I do?" he scoffed, folding his arms, "I kind of doubt that."

"Barry, no-"

"Barry," I snarled.

"I don't think you can love Iris as much as I love her," he continued, unimpressed, "I've loved her since I was a child. I loved Iris continuously for two whole decades. Her very existence was the motivating drive for me, got me out of bed every morning, and today, you almost took her away from me..."

"Okay, we get it," Cisco interjected, frowning, A"rtemis's invention went haywire, which wasn't her fault, and Iris was in trouble, which again wasn't her fault, and because you can't make sense of what happened, you're choosing to act by showing your true colors as a jerk to her. Now would be the time to shut up."

Caitlin and I looked to Artemis with worry.

She pressed her eyes shut in a foolish attempt to stop her tears, and covered her mouth.

They only increased in rate, and silently fell faster, and she quietly shook as they overtook her.

"I'm sorry, Artemis, but I loved her long before I even met you," Barry murmured, looking away, "I don't think my feelings for you could ever compare to what I felt for her, not now, anyways."

A choking sound left her throat, and Caitlin and I immediately put our hands on her back, ready to spout words of comfort.

"Barry," Artemis answered cautiously, wiping her eyes. She took off her glasses to face him with her reddened face, "If - If you love Iris so much, then spare me the headache. I'll drop your things off at Joe's tomorrow morning."

He blinked, surprised, before he frowned again, zoomed over to hang his suit, now dressed in his street clothes again. He looked over at her with an uncertainty, before he slipped his hands into his pockets, and quietly left.

Artemis took a shaky breath, picked up the geo-located and slowly rose. She violently threw the machine into the garbage can, and silently stalked into the hallway.

"Hey - no," Caitlin attempted, getting up to chase after her. Cisco rose as well, and frowning sadly, he pulled a destroyed model of the Eiffel tower out of the trash.

"Artemis, wait up!" He called out gently, running after them with the broken device.

I took a deep breath, and removed my glasses.

It was about damn time this toxicity ended between them.

I didn't want to see her cry, though...

###

Artemis hadn't been able to stop crying, back in her lab, and Caitlin, Cisco and myself tried uselessly to comfort her. Caitlin tried to tell her that Barry would come around; he always did, and their relationship would go back to normal. Once you reach rock bottom, the only place you can go is back up, right?

"Who am I kidding?" Caitlin cursed quietly, breaking away, "I think you should be glad this relationship ended, Artemis. I hated this side of you. And that side of him."

"He doesn't deserve what he had," I added, squeezing my daughter's hand, hatred fleeting through me at the thought of Barry's anger towards her, "He's not as great as you make him out to be."

"You're not at fault here," Cisco cajoled, "Mark Mardon flooded that building. Mark Mardon killed those 23 people. Mark Mardon kidnapped Iris. You did nothing wrong here. And, well, breaking up might be the best thing for you both to be doing, in the long run."

Cisco had coaxed her that the geo-locator wasn't the problem, either, and had convinced her to try and fix it to get her mind off of Barry.

Genius, wasn't he?

The next few hours consisted of the three of us sitting beside a tearful, apologetic Artemis, working as we listened to her weep, and plead the three of us to ignore her and go back home, that she'd be okay and we were wasting time.

We all knew that wasn't a good idea.

If we left her, she'd probably sink into a vortex of self-hatred, and would blame herself for everything that happened.

I excused myself for a second, and surged up to the time vault to check up on Barry.

Eddie let Iris stay at her dad's, and she was in her room, sleeping fitfully.

Downstairs, Joe was yelling at his stepson, who had come home teary-eyed over the break up.

(Bar, I can't believe you sometimes,) Joe scolded, pinching the skin between his eyes, (That woman may not be Iris, but she would crawl through hell and back for you in a heartbeat. You made a mistake by yelling at her, and berating her.)

No, I thought, balling my hands into a fist. No, you idiot. You're not supposed to try and talk Barry into apologizing. Just let this end, for once and for all.

(Joe, I - I love her, though. I don't know why I said what I did,) Barry replied weakly, face flushed, (I never wanted for it to end. She's the one who instigated the break-up.)

(For crying out loud, of course she instigated the break-up,) Joe shouted, (If I was her, and I had to listen to everything you just told me you said to her, then I would never want to see your face again, either. Barry, this isn't Becky Cooper - that nutjob from sophomore year. And this isn't Vanessa Redlynn either. This is Artemis Van Kleiss, and she seriously loved you, and was dedicated to you. She spent thousands of dollars a month, making sure you'd eat enough, when she was not responsible for that. She let you live with her, and never once asked you to pay any of her bills. Both of her parents are dead, but she still worked hard to help you solve the case about your mom, just so you could get your dad out of jail. She bought you a fucking car, no strings attached, and all you did was argue with her all the time, and she let you, because she is naive and young, and you took advantage of that. And that is not how I taught you to treat a woman. I - I ought to file charges against you, Bar!)

(Joe-)

(Don't you 'Joe' me. You're 25 years old. I'm too old to be walking you through your break-ups.) Joe answered sternly, (Do you have any idea how she must be taking this? You're taking your sorry ass back over to her, and apologizing, and you're going to return the keys to your goddamn car too, and after, you'll never show her your face again. Show her some respect, at least.)

Barry hung his head, his hands folded over the back of his neck. (Do you think we have a chance at getting back together? If I give her space?)

Joe snorted, and leaned back. (You're damned lucky she's letting you live. Most women cry and scream, and throw plates and chase after you with a knife. Artemis doesn't even raise her voice. You - You brought this upon yourself. You obviously can't control your anger. And, Eddie or not, after what I just saw, you'll be dating my daughter over my dead body. I'm not gonna let Iris go through what Artemis did.)

Oh, for crying out loud, Joe...

I sat in my wheelchair and returned downstairs.

Artemis had finally fallen asleep, her head buried in her arms on top of the table, leaning forward in her chair. Caitlin's white sweater was draped over her back, and Cisco still tinkered at the geo-locator.

"I shouldn't be saying this," Caitlin whispered, "But I never want to see Barry again."

I rolled my chair next to Cisco.

I'm sorry, Caitlin, I thought. You'll be seeing Barry again very soon.

Artemis murmured in her sleep, pressing her eyes tighter before relaxing her eyelids. Cisco smoothed a hand over her hair, soothing her, before turning back to the machine.

"She completely bashed the voltaics chip," he murmured, and Caitlin moved closer to him to see, "She's worked on it so much that she pretty much fried it. It's a miracle the signal processor worked at all. She must've forgotten to replace it each time she made repairs..."

No, Cisco...

She actually replaced it several times. Every time she fixed the machine, it showed her and myself as metahumans, and she couldn't trust that, so she tried repairing it again.

The chip was ruined it when she threw the machine in the trash can. Specialized voltaics compartments were very fragile and susceptible to damage, anyhow.

I worked on a different part of the machine to make sure the voltaic activity would be countered and my secret would be kept safe, sadly sabotaging the machine, and the three of us worked in silence, until around 4 am or so, we heard footsteps approaching in the hall.

Barry knocked at the door to the lab room before he entered anyway, dried tears caked on his face.

"Go away," Cisco muttered, focusing back onto the geo-locator, "You have no business with us. You don't even work here. You're just a superhero we help on the side, who was rude and harsh to one of our friends. So leave."

Cisco's words stung Barry, and he was outwardly saddened. "I - that's not true," he murmured, approaching anyway, "You're my friends, and-"

"Barry," Caitlin stated quietly, turning in her chair to face him, "Don't you think you both need to stop with this?"

I wheeled my chair in front of Artemis. "If you think you'll convince her to take you back and continue to ruin her, then you're very very wrong. She's staying here with us. She's had enough of your-"

"What's going on?" A small voice asked. Surprised, I stopped yelling and turned in my chair. Artemis had been awoken, and was rubbing her eyes before she put her glasses back on. She furrowed her eyebrows expectantly when she saw Barry.

Tears rose in his eyes and he shrugged a shoulder. "Can we... can we talk this out, at least? I don't want things to end like this."

"What's there to talk about?" I interjected sharply, "She's not going anywhere with you, not after the way you taunted her back in the Corte-"

My words disappeared at the sight of Artemis slowly rising from her chair and walking towards Barry.

"Barry, you don't need to change," she whispered, dropping her gaze to the floor, "23 people are dead because of me. Iris could've been one of them. You were right to blame me."

"Oh hell no," Cisco asserted coldly, glaring at the duo, shaking his head in disapproval, "You can't let him tell you what to think."

"Artemis, Barry, you both had very bad days," Caitlin added, "Let's be sensible about this and talk when our heads are cleared."

"Think twice about what you're doing," I pressed, unable to read the look in her eyes, "This relationship is causing you more pain than pleasure. Don't let it kill you."

Artemis looked away and frowned, roughly rubbing her forehead from the headache. Barry took one of her hands in both of his. "No, Artemis," he murmured, his voice heavy with sadness, "I never had any right to blame you. For anything. You - you deserve so much, and all I've done is lay our love to waste."

She sniffled, and looked up at him, tears slowly falling from her eyes. "Can we go home?" She whispered, her voice breaking, "I just want us to go home."

He gave a single nod, and I must have blinked, because they were gone.

They were gone.

She went back to him.

She let him win again.

Anger.

Shock.

Disappointment.

Defeat.

I took the screwdriver in my hand and threw it across the room, nearly lurching out of my chair from the momentum, breathing heavily.

"Sir!" Caitlin gasped.

"Dr. Wells, are you okay?" Cisco questioned.

I turned to them both, breath heaving. They both wore scared, surprised faces.

"Go home. Both of you," I ordered callously, rubbing my temples, "We've all had long days. Sleep it off."

Astonished, they both stuttered goodbyes and raced out of the lab.

This wasn't over, Barry Allen, I thought, rising from my wheelchair.

You do not win my daughter.

###

I was back in my time vault now, contemplating whether or not to use the suit.

My future had been scrambled beyond hope, ages ago. I wasn't even sure if I'd exist, and I had no idea what would happen to STAR Labs, or to Barry, Iris, Caitlin, Cisco, and there was no clue to evident my return home.

And I didn't care.

At this point, all I could even think about was Artemis, and the type of pain Barry was causing her, and how I was just letting it happen.

I felt even worse when I remembered it was my fault.

I was the one continuously sabotaging her machine, every time it read me as a metahuman, and Artemis would innocently fluster.

"No, that's not right," she murmured, eyebrows crossed as she began working again, "That could never be right. The man is an innocent cripple. He can't be a metahuman."

She would get even more worried when it would read her as a metahuman as well.

"Oh, for crying out loud," she exclaimed, aggravated, "I am not a metahuman. I was nowhere near Central City when the accelerator gave way - quit crashing, you vile chunk of metal."

Then she would adorably get back to overseeing the geo-locator's technical difficulties.

At any rate, she was with Barry, seated at their dining room. She had a plate of lasagna in front of her, and it appeared that she wasn't eating it, worrying him. I slapped my hand on the control panel, turning the audio on.

(Artemis?) Barry asked kindly, (You've got to eat. You haven't had anything since breakfast.)

(Not hungry,) she muttered, pulling away from his hand, which was trying to stroke her face.

(Do I have to tickle you for it?) he asked, with a small hopeful smile.

(Touch me, and it'll be the last thing your hand does before I separate it from your body,) she answered.

His smile disappeared, and his expression returned to a glum one. He sighed and sat down next to her.

(Do you truly want to break up with me?) He asked quietly.

Say yes.

Say yes.

Say yes, and I'll throw you a party.

(I don't) she responded, frozen, (But... we're just yelling at each other. We used to love one another. You told me this was a phase, and that it would pass. And, well, it hasn't been passing very nicely, to be honest.)

(I...)

(Cisco used to be mad about us being together. He picked out names for all of our kids, and he has our wedding planned out, right down to the guest list) she stated, (Now, even he wants you to keep your distance. And so does Caitlin. And you heard how angry Dr. Wells was, and... And I don't want to see you insulted like that. I only want the best for you, and if that means cutting me out of your life, then it would physically pain me to be with you.)

The color drained right from his face.

(Don't say that,) Barry countered, appalled, forcing her to look at him, (I could never not have you in my life. I need you. From this day forth, I promise I will never raise my voice over you. I - I can't leave you.)

(Why wouldn't you want to leave me?) She challenged coldly, studying his face.

(Because I love you,) he replied, (You're beautiful. You're the smartest woman I know. You've supported me at my worst and at my best. You're-)

(Wealthy, young, and enamored. That makes me easily persuadable,) she interjected, narrowing her eyes, (You sure you're not dating me for my money?)

(Artemis, I could never-)

(You're going to need to prove to me you actually love me, because I am not convinced,) she asserted sternly.

He smiled and closed the distance between them, pulling her in for a long, beautiful kiss.

She hesitated and tried to push him away at first, but even she could only resist his charm for so long, her protests dying as he cupped her jaw in his hands, letting him deepen the kiss.

She blushed when he pulled away. (That - that wasn't what I meant-) she stammered, trying to maintain an angry, uninterested persona.

He put her hand to his chest, and smiled at her. (I do love you. And you have total permission to turn one of your metaguns on me if I ever act like a jerk again.)

(Tell me again how much you love me?) she asked, wearing a dreamy smile as she lay her head down on the table.

He grinned back at her, one hand rubbing her back, and did as he was told. He sat there, telling her how badly he was smitten for her, and how she was talented in every definition of the word, and how he was a total prick for taking advantage of her love for him. He went on to tell her his favorite memories with her - romantic, silly, and just plain weird - and how much she had changed his life in merely half a year.

Her eyes softened as he spoke, and she laughed right along with some of his crazier reiterations of their past dates and awkward moments, and the sweeter recounts appeared to be bringing her to near tears. He put his hand on her face when he was finished, promising he loved her more than he could ever love anyone else.

(I'm glad you told me all of that,) she concluded, her smile dissolving, (Because now I'd like for you think of what you told me about this love meaning nothing to you, in comparison to your love for Iris.)

All signs of happiness and love vanished from his face at once, and he blinked. (Ar - Artemis, I didn't mean that. I swear I didn't. I was just... I was jus-)

(Barry, I'll put up with the screaming and the arguing,) she continued, sad, (I'll put up with hours of being ignored, and I'll put up with you leaving me to go to your dad's when you're mad at me. I love you, and I would do anything for you... But I don't want us to be together knowing I'm your second choice...)

He widened his eyes, shook his head in disbelief. (Artemis, you were never my-)

(Barry,) she interjected softly, taking his hands, (Look me in the eyes, and tell me you didn't mean what you said back in the lab. I knew what I was getting myself into, when we began dating, back when you had liked Iris, but I had thought you changed. I thought you had fallen for me.)

(I had,) he protested tensely, (I had fallen for you, and I do love-)

(Then just tell me,) she answered, (I don't want to be relying on my own disillusions anymore. I've been so invested in you for this past half year, and it'll destroy me to know that you don't feel the same, and you still like someone else. I want to hear it from you yourself, that you seriously hold our love in a higher standard than you hold your previous feelings for Iris. That's it.)

He looked away, and hugged himself. (I...)

He couldn't finish his sentence. He sat there, hands trembling.

(Barry?) Artemis asked cautiously.

He shook his head, speechless. (Artemis, I...)

She put her hands on his knees, and looked up into his eyes. He averted his gaze.

They sat frozen like that for a while, and it was in that still, delicate moment that Barry finally destroyed everything they had built together - all without saying a word.

Artemis hadn't been able to look away from him, and her heartache displayed itself in her body language as she realized he wasn't going to talk.

She blinked, slowly pulling away. (I can't believe everything I have ever done has led to this moment,) she murmured as she rose.

Barry's eyes watered as he realized what he had just done.

(Where are you going?) He asked, when he saw she had slipped her feet back into shoes, and that she was removing her car keys from their hook. He got up and caught her fist in order to stop her. (What are you doing? You - you can't leave. Artemis-)

(I'm just going for a walk,) she replied, facing away, (I need to clear my head.)

(At - at this hour?) He stammered, shaking his head, (You can't be out there alone. It's not safe. I - I'll come with you-)

(If you follow me, or try to stop me, I will never forgive you.)

(No, no, I can't just let you go into the night like that,) he protested weakly, (I'll go. I'll leave you alone, if you don't want to be with me. But you need to stay inside; Garzonas is out there-)

(I'll be back by morning,) she responded softly, opening the front door.

(Artem-)

(If you have any shred of respect left for me, you won't follow me.) and just like that, she calmly closed the front door, leaving him alone at home.

Barry fell to his knees.

"What have you done, you fool?" I shouted, trying to follow Artemis along in Gideon's traffic cams.

Maybe she was going to Caitlin's, or Cisco's.

Maybe she was going to the Wests, to kill Iris.

Actually, no, neither of those sounded reasonable.

She hated being pitied on. She felt uncomfortable being consoled, even if Caitlin or Cisco were her best friends. She got that cold independence from me.

And, really, Artemis didn't blame Iris for Barry's feelings. She never had. She simply wasn't the angry/jealous type.

Maybe she was coming to me - to my house, I thought, as I watched her car drive into the Lawrence Hills District, where my neighborhood was. I would welcome her into my home with open arms, and I'd let her stay for as long as she wanted. I'd protect her from Barry.

Just as I was about to turn around to race home, I saw her merge her car onto the adjacent lane and drive towards the highway.

The highway?

Was she leaving the city?

Where could she possibly be going at this hour?

Sweat beading on my forehead, I panicked, grabbed my black baseball cap, and raced out of the lab into the lab.

This was something more extreme than remote surveillance from my time vault could watch for.

This was one of those rare occasions that called for an on-foot pursuit.

I didn't even worry as to whether or not I'd have enough speed to last me the entire way. I just ran, and I didn't stop until I saw her car, speeding down the highway.

I tried my best to stay in the shadows, and paused stopped running while her car was still in my sight, hurrying to catch my breath before she'd disappear and I'd be charging forward to find her again.

This continued for about twenty minutes, and my fear began to stabilize. She was just going for a drive to soothe her nerves, right? She'd be going back soon? She told Barry she'd return by morning.

So why wasn't she turning around? I asked myself, new panic being born.

Why was she driving farther and farther out into the city?

What would she have out here?

I continued to follow her car for another ten minutes or so, until she took an exit, and quickly turned the car into the parking lot of a natural reserve.

It was almost 5 in the morning now. Why would she be at Red Forest Park, of all places?

Chills swam through me as I watched her get out of the car, and step into the forest, dauntless.

Giant bears.

Ruthless packs of wolves.

Poisonous snakes.

It didn't matter why she was here anymore - she was not walking into that forest alone.

So I did the only thing I could.

I followed her.

###

She had silently walked over to a wooden bridge, built above a river.

It was dark enough for me to watch from only a few meters away.

I didn't want to watch, though.

I wanted to take her home, and give her a full mug of tea, and hold her, and tell her it would be okay.

All alone now, she walked over to the highest point on the bridge, and began weeping.

I watched helplessly, guilt and hatred bubbling within me, as she slowly sat down, and covered her face with her hands, her silent tears growing into snivels, which grew into uncontrollable, erratic sobs, and out of nowhere, she stood up, winced as she angrily pulled something off of her wrist, and chucked it into the river before she let her tears attack her again.

At this point, I was ready to reveal myself, if it meant I could comfort her.

But I watched as she flicked her tears away with the side of her finger, and turned to head back, when she became startled by the absence of something in her hands, and ran back to the bridge.

My heart skipped a beat and I watched in terror as she searched for the missing item, and then suddenly turned to the bridge's wooden railing, and leaned over.

"No! Don't jump!" I shouted, using my super speed to stop her, pulling her back, "Artemis, what are you thinking?!"

She shrieked at the top of her lungs and swiftly dealt me a punch in the face before running away.

God help me, I thought.

She had thought she was alone in the woods before some random creep dressed in all black appeared out of nowhere and grabbed her.

Of course she'd run.

I had thought this out well.

I caught her before she could reach the end of the bridge and turned her around by the shoulders, forcing her to look at me. "Artemis, Artemis, no. It's me. Please don't be scared. Please don't be scared. It's me. No, no, my child, please don't be scared. It's just me."

"What?" she gasped, hyperventilating as she pulled away, "Dr. Wells?!"

"Yes," I replied, reaching my hands out to her, "Artemis, what are you-"

She stepped back in disbelief - in fear. "How - how did you find me?" she demanded, trying to catch her breath, "And - and where's your wheelchair? You can walk?! What? You can walk?"

I frowned as I looked down at my legs, before I faced her again. "It's - I'll explain everything later," I answered, gently taking her face in my hands, "Artemis, what were you thinking?! That man is not worth your life! Do you hear me? Barry Allen is not worth your life!"

"What?" she panted again.

"Weren't you - weren't you about to jump?!" I asked gently.

"Jump? No?" she responded, swatting my hands away, "I threw the watch he had given me for Christmas into the river, and accidentally tossed my car keys in as well. I kind of need them both. I was liking for them in the river."

"Oh?" I murmured, crinkling my eyebrows in confusion before I took her hands again, "Enough of this. I've had enough of seeing you torment yourself."

I put my arm over her shoulder and led her off of the bridge. "Let's go home."

###

As I had originally wanted, I had taken her to my home, and placed a warm blanket over her shoulders. I brought her a hot mug of tea and handed it to her as I sat down beside her.

"All I've wanted is to go back home to my family, when I keep forgetting I have one here with you," I stated, tucking a piece of her hair out of the way.

She watched me with fear in her eyes, and slowly scooted away. "I - sir, that's really creepy. I should be going back home now. Barry must be worried-"

"You are not going anywhere near that man ever again," I ordered sharply.

She gave me a stubborn scowl, and set the tea down on the table. "Someone tell me what the fuck is going on here," she exclaimed, shaking her head, "First that stupid machine glitches, then the shit with Iris happens, then I drop my keys in the river, and now you. How on earth did you find me, and how are you able to walk, and why are you so overprotective and strange around me all of a sudden?"

"I... Artemis," I began carefully, knowing for a fact that what I was about to say would not have positive repercussions, "There's something I never told you, that's been critical to how I've been acting around you."

"I'm all ears," she answered, narrowing her eyes.

"I... am your father."

Both of her eyebrows tipped up, clearly incredulous, and she slowly nodded. "Umm... Okay, sir. I think you need to get some rest, and maybe not watch The Empire Strikes Back with so much gumption-"

"It's true," I interjected, sorrow filling me.

"Right," she mumbled worriedly, dropping the blanket as she rose, "I should be getting home now-"

"You don't believe me."

"Uhh, yeah, of course, I don't believe you," she retorted, scowling, "My father is Laurus Van Kleiss. I have proof that he's my-"

"Your proof is falsified," I found my voice saying, "I would know... because I'm the one responsible for doing so."

She was noticeably offended. "Look, I appreciate you trying to look out for me and worrying for me, but enough is enough. Don't disrespect my parents that way. My mother would never hurt my father like that. She loved him-"

"I've made many mistakes in my life," I answered cautiously, looking away, "Mistakes that have gotten other people hurt, and have torn apart lives. And I am not talking about the accelerator. Artemis, I want nothing more than to right my wrongs, and taking you back is one of them."

She paused where she was. "Sir? What are you saying?"

"I - I can't tell you everything. Not now," I murmured, heart beating wildly as I realized what I was saying, "But... You know how the metahuman tracker kept reading us as metas?"

She blinked, color draining from her face.

"We are metas. I am a metahuman, and you've been one since birth," I continued solemnly, "And I - I made sure you wouldn't have any abilities, so you could live in peace with your parents."

Part of that was a lie.

But there was no way I could tell her I was the one who killed Laurus and Ariadne.

Not now, anyways.

She furrowed her eyebrows and sat down again. "Keep talking."

And so I told her. I left certain parts out of the story, and wouldn't tell her until she was thoroughly won over. I also left out the part where I purposely had abandoned her. I didn't tell her how she was conceived, but I apologized for bringing her to the lab, and for making her suffer when I could have prevented it, and I apologized for being cruel and harsh around her.

"I - I only pushed you away because I hadn't known what would happen if I tried to become close to you," I confessed, closing my eyes, "I didn't know if you'd have it in your heart to forgive me, after everything I had done to you."

Granted, you still didn't know what half of those things were.

I felt her press her soft hand over mine. She gave me an expectant look.

"Hartley Rathaway had told me I wasn't who I thought I was, and he warned me to be wary of you," she described, before she looked away and shook her head, "But... but this explains why you didn't want me to know who the Flash was. You were looking out for me, and for my safety. You knew the Reverse Flash would come after me, if I engaged with Barry. You had been caring for me all this time, and I was so closed-minded, and accused you of being cold and treacherous. I thought you just didn't want to see Barry and I together, when it was so much bigger than that."

"Yes. That's true."

I wasn't going to correct her, now, was I?

She took a deep breath, and looked over at me. Her lips tipped up in a weak smile. "So. If we're metahumans, what kind of powers do we have? Flying? Invisibility? Super-strength? And why are we keeping our powers a secret?"

I faltered.

"Can I actually get my powers back?" She continued, before she gestured to my knees. "Do these powers have anything to do with your legs? Cuz why else would you be in a wheelchair? You know what? I bet your powers are super-advanced senses. Or maybe some kind of super-dimensional sixth sense. That must explain how you found me at the bridge. You could sense it."

I smiled, and pulled her in to drop a kiss on her head for the first time. "I'll tell you all of it, in due time."

"I wanna know now!" she insisted, giving me a quick hug before she pulled away, "You can't just tell me I have superpowers then tell me I can't use them. You know, you're actually lucky I'm not trying to kill you for blaming it on my geo-locator. I spent weeks building that thing. People are dead now because of it. Tell me what my powers are, if they're so important that you needed to take them away from me."

"You've had more than enough excitement for one day," I chuckled, turning to get up, before I remembered something crucial.

"Artemis, tell no one about this. About my legs, about my secret. Nothing. To nobody. These secrets come with a heavy price. I don't want for you to pay it."

She frowned, before she nodded.

"And one last thing?" I added.

"What is it?" She asked innocently.

I leaned in, and put my hand on her shoulder. "Leave Barry Allen. Trust me. The man is no good for you."

"What?"

"If he ever finds out your secrets, he will never forgive you. And I know things about him that will send shivers down your spine. He's a liar, and he's extremely conniving and manipulative. He's always been that way. He knows how to win people over, and let them believe he likes them. Everything you've had together? It's been a complete lie. You saw that yourself when he admitted he liked Iris more than you. This is why I've always been against you dating him."

She watched me with unblinking dark eyes, her mind calculating and processing my lies.

She needed to believe me.

She had to.

She didn't belong with him.

"Artemis, did you hear me?"

"I did, sir," she replied quietly.

I couldn't repress a smile. "You don't need to call me 'sir', you know."

Her expression hinted at a grin. "With all due respect, I just went on quite the emotional roller coaster. If it's all the same to you, I'll stick with Dr. Wells."

I chuckled. "So be it."

She allowed for a full grin, and stared at nothing in particular, before facing me again. "Wait - does that mean my name should actually be Artemis Wells?" She asked curiously, "Because, no offense, but that sounds disgusti-"

"Thawne."

"What?"

"Your rightful name is Artemis Thawne," I concluded, dropping another kiss in her hair before getting up to leave, "I'll explain the rest to you later. Right now, sleep. I'll see you in the morning."

"Umm... isn't that Eddie's last name?" She inquired, furrowing her eyebrows, "We're related to him?"

"Like I said, the rest will be explained in due time," I stated, leading her to the guest room I had prepared for her. She bit her lip before entering.

"You're welcome to go back home, if you don't want to stay," I suggested, "The last thing I want is for you to feel uncomfortable."

"No, it's fine," she answered, giving me a small smile before she nodded at me in acknowledgement and closed the door behind her.

She was home.

With me.

And that's exactly where she belonged, I thought, as I returned to my kitchen.

Everything would work out.

I would win.

I nearly dropped my mug as I found a tall, dark-haired teenaged boy leaning against the counter, arms crossed, scowling at me.

"I heard all of that," he stated, "You're a disgusting, cold-blooded liar. This is your final warning. Turn everything around, or I will."

"I only did what I had to," I answered, smiling, "In a matter of days, you'll be erased from existence."

He snorted a laugh, and wore a crooked grin as he pushed past me, leaving. "So will you."

###

The next day, Artemis and I returned to the Lab. I had retrieved both her keys and the watch from the river while she was asleep, and she drove us to the lab.

Barry looked as if he had spent all night in tears. He ran forward and took Artemis in a bear hug when we entered. "Artemis, where did you go? I was worried senseless. You didn't take your phone, and I searched for you everywhere. I was terrified. Joe and a few cops had been looking for you as well, and Mardon attacked this morning."

She wore a look of sorrow, love battling distrust in her eyes, before distrust won out, and she pulled away from him. "I was with Dr. Wells. I told you you had no reason to worry about me. It's not like I matter to you anyway."

He snatched her hand, visibly hurt. "Hey. That's not true. That's never ever been true. Artemis, this is serious. I was scared, okay? After Mardon took Joe-"

"Mardon took Joe?" She gasped.

"Yes," he pressed, "When we had been looking for you. I was with him in the police car, then all of a sudden, it began raining in the middle of the road, and-"

"I'll find him. I'll find them both," she assured, striding back to her lab.

Barry turned and studied me with tired green eyes. "Why would she go to you, of all people?"

"Don't worry about it," I retorted.

He frowned. "Was she okay?"

"Yes. She's fine," I answered, before I smiled and shook my head at him, "Barry, she's not yours to worry about anymore."

He narrowed his eyes at me, but was soon distracted by Artemis returning with the geo-locator, a metagun and a tired looking Cisco.

"You're using that thing again?" Barry inquired worriedly, signaling towards the geo-locator.

"I figured out what was wrong with it," she replied, not bothering to make eye contact as she synchronized the device with the STAR Labs satellite, "I had thought there was an issue with the voltaics baseline chip, when it reality, there was no issue. This thing was working perfectly from the very beginning."

Barry's phone rang, and he pouted as he read the screen. "It's Eddie. I've got to take this."

"Go," Artemis stated, as she began typing. Sure enough, the machine read three metahumans as present in the Cortex. Cisco widened his eyes. "Artemis, that's-"

She gave him a look of worry, and squeezed his hand. "Cisco, it's not important right now. I need to find Mardon."

"But-"

"Cisco, please."

He fell silent, and the two of us watched as she zoomed out and worked the geo-locator's signal to pick up strange energy and activity in the atmosphere, and almost immediately found a clear signal near the city waterfront.

"Eddie's trying to organize a police squadron," Barry explained, returning to the Cortex, "Garzonas has publicly issued a ransom for Joe, in exchange for the Flash."

"You're not going anywhere," Artemis ordered, stuffing the metagun into a black duffel bag, and slipping on a red MIT baseball cap.

"Where are you going?" Barry asked, frowning.

"To take down Mardon," Artemis answered, gathering the rest of her things before she looked to me for approval, "I'll be back soon, sir."

I gave her a single nod, and reached over to squeeze her hand before she nodded back and turned to leave.

Barry watched us with shock displayed on his face, before he focused on Artemis again. "You can't go. You - you can't even trust that machine. It's mislead us so many times. People have died."

"Of course you'd undermine me," she muttered, walking past him, "Look, I don't care what you think anymore. I need to do what needs to be done to keep lives from being lost. Including yours."

He followed her into the entrance hall. I followed him.

"Then, you can't go alone," he pressed desperately, "It's not safe. Let me go. Let me take the gun. Mardon is dangerous. We can do this together."

She sighed deeply, and turned around, facing him with determination in her eyes. "Barry, I honestly think 'together' isn't the best thing for us anymore. You didn't take me seriously before, so I don't see why you're trying to make up for that now. I don't need you. I never did. And you never really needed me, either."

Tears sprang in his eyes. "Artemis, why are you being like this?" He asked, heartbroken, reaching for her hand, "You know that's not true. It never was."

She frowned sadly, but her look steeled itself again. "I'm not saying you're a bad guy; you're still a hero, and you're one of the greatest men in existence. But... But we all have mistakes, and even the greatest of men can't change sometimes. Mardon isn't going to spare your life, if you show up. But he won't be expecting me..."

"Artemis..."

She pulled something out of her pocket, and dispensed a ruined leather watch into his palm. "I'm sorry I ruined your mother's watch... I hope you'll find it in yourself to forgive me. For everything, really."

He watched with dumbfounded eyes as she fixed the red baseball cap over her head, a genuine look of regret playing on her face. "Goodbye, Barry..."

Once she finally left the vicinity, Barry stood, frozen in place, unable to process everything she had said. He turned around and glared at me, tearful. "Are you happy now?" He muttered, "She broke up with me. You finally got what you always wanted."

I chuckled, and rubbed my eyes before I removed my glasses, smiling at him. "Oh, I didn't get what I wanted. No, Barry, you got what you deserved."

###

Barry didn't talk to me for the rest of the day. I wasn't complaining.

Everything was finally going as planned.

Artemis was on my side now - she finally left him.

And there was no way Barry could win, so long as we had the radioactive electron matter on our sides.

I could use it anyway I wanted.

I could use it to replicate Barry's speed, or to permanently take it away from him. It didn't really matter how I used it anymore - he had no chance against us.

But of course, there were still a few more obstacles to be taken care of...

I could hear Cisco anxiously whispering to Caitlin, in the Cortex: "No, no, you don't understand. This isn't a glitch anymore. The geo-locator is tracking both Wells and Artemis as metahumans."

"Cisco... There needs to be an explanation," Caitlin advised, always the sensible one, "Check the genetic polarity. Maybe there's a misreading on the static graphs."

"Caitlin, Artemis and I built this thing to work, and I spent all night tweaking it," he urged, unable to believe the reading he had received from the geo-locator, "Just... Just look. The machine always read Dr. Wells as a metahuman, and Artemis always tried to fix it, so it wouldn't. They're up to something."

"They're?!" Caitlin asked skeptically, "Cisco, you say that like Dr. Wells is doing something bad, and Artemis is covering for him..."

"Caitlin, she saw the reading this morning, and asked me to ignore it," Cisco answered quietly, worried, "She knows what she's doing. She knows something's wrong, and she's hiding it."

"Cisco, I don't believe you," Caitlin answered, biting her lip as she put her hand to his shoulder, "It's... I don't know. It's not believable."

"No... Do you remember what Dr. Wells had warned us?" Cisco murmured nervously, "About Artemis not being trustworthy?"

"Cisco, you and Barry both believed her, though," Caitlin stated, scratching her hair, "I'm not sure where you're getting at."

"Caitlin, something wrong is happening here," Cisco stated, frantic as he worked at the computer, "And Joe had said Dr. Wells might be involved in the murders of Ariadne Van Kleiss and Nora Allen. It - it can't be a coincidence that Wells and Artemis and Barry are being read as metahumans. Caitlin, could you keep Dr. Wells out of the lab for a few hours? I - I just need to find out what's happening."

"Cisco-"

"Caitlin, please."

"Okay."

I smiled.

Oh, this was getting better and better by the second.

* * *

 **[Artemis's POV]**

A part of me had died.

I couldn't do anything other than hate myself for how I treated Barry.

And I didn't even want to think about Dr. Wells, and his revelation to me.

He could walk.

And he was my father.

No. I didn't know why I had so willingly believed him, and given in to everything he had told me.

There had to be a way to fix this.

But later.

Mardon had kidnapped Joe, and Barry was being hunted down. I hoped I had done the right thing by forcing him to stay behind. I knew for a fact I had not done the right thing when I broke up with him.

There had to be some hope, in this hell.

I'd make everything better again. I swore I would.

My windshield wipers were swiping across the windshield like mad, and I was barely able to see where I was driving in the face of the spray and the fog.

My geo-locator had worked.

I was getting closer and closer to Mardon.

I parked and got out of my car when I had arrived at the waterfront, but the fog was so thick, I was barely able to see five inches in front of me.

Doing my best to stay calm, I pulled out my tablet, the gun hanging from its strap off my shoulder, and tried to find Mardon and Joe. I continued stumbling through the dense fog, trying not to trip over the ground I could see, before I bumped into something tall.

"Looking for someone?" A tall, bearded man asked, arms crossed as he looked down at me.

A second voice laughed, and a rough, calloused hand caught my face. "Hey, Mark. This is that scientist girl from TV. The one who tries to make the world a better place by curing metahumans."

Mewling, I kicked my way out of the second man's grip, and dropped both the gun and the tablet in doing so, panting.

The first man grinned at me. He was a brunette, tall and well-built, wearing a windbreaker.

The second man grinned as well, before he laughed again - a cold, cruel sound. He wore blacks slacks and a tight yellow dress shirt. A deck of cards was tattooed across his neck.

I didn't find Mardon and Garzonas.

They found me.

Garzonas picked up at tablet and studied it. "Aww, Marky, look here. She came looking for you. She probably wanted to cure you."

"Do you honestly think you're doing this city a favor, by curing us?" Mardon responded, narrowing his eyes at me, "We were given these powers. They're gifts. They're making us stronger, and more powerful. Thousands of metas have lost their glory because of you. You should to be taught a lesson."

"Wh- where's Joseph West?" I demanded, voice quivering as I backed away, quickly picking up my gun, pointing it at them, "Tell me. Tell me right now, or I'll-"

"Or you'll call the Flash?" Garzonas asked, still smiling. He began walking towards me. "I mean, the entire city knows you're working with him. Actually, no, that sounds like a great idea. Call him. We can kill him too. There's a high price for metahumans, back in Gotham, where I'm from."

"You'll stop what you're doing if you know what's good for you," I stammered nervously, "Where's Joe?!"

"Look, Ms. Van Kleiss, is it?" Mardon continued, "Joseph West is a dead man. He killed my brother. He doesn't deserve to live."

"And who are you to decide that?" I countered stupidly, shivering from fear. I powered my gun on, and aimed.

The next thing I knew, my wrists were bleeding, and the gun fell to the ground.

I didn't know how.

I didn't know why.

I didn't see it happening.

Two thick, deep slashes, chasing after each other on my wrists as my vision doubled.

A runny red liquid freely oozing out of them.

A knife in Garzonas's hand, and a smile on his face.

I didn't register pain as much as I felt a shocked, horrified fear.

An insatiable throbbing pulsed, where the veins had been cut.

"What's this thing do?" Garzonas asked curiously, picking up the metagun off of the ground, clocking it.

"She uses it to stop metahumans," Mardon answered, nodding towards me, "She gave a few of them to the police. Thought it would make the city safer."

"How noble of her..."

Call the police - Eddie, Captain Singh, Lt. Briggs-

Where's Dr. Wells? Can't he - can't he use his metahuman abilities to sense what's happening to me?

Can't he come save me?

There's blood on the ground, on my clothes.

Call - call Barry.

Get help.

Joe.

Blood.

So much blood.

Garzonas chuckled as he pointed the gun at me. "Do you think it'll work on humans as well?"

Adrenaline shot through my back. "No, no, don't-" I whimpered, blocking my face with my sliced wrists.

I heard the sharp sound of electron canisters being charged, the gun ready to shoot. "I take it it does work on humans..."

"Easy, Felipe," Mardon scolded, pushing the gun's muzzle down, "We don't want her dead. Not yet, anyway. Don't forget. She can get us the Flash."

"Can she now?"

"We know she knows him. Maybe she knows his secret identity. Maybe they're friends," Mardon suggested with a hopeful shrug, "Check her phone."

I barely stood my ground and weakly protested in vain as Garzonas roughly searched my clothes, and yanked my phone out of my pocket, before forcefully grabbing my bloodied wrist and pushing my thumb onto the fingerprint sensor, unlocking my phone.

He smiled as he scrolled through the contents.

"She's got 52 missed phone calls from someone named Barry," he read out loud, grinning, "And wow, look at all of these apologetic text messages. 'Artemis, you can't just run off like that, and leave me to worry. I've been looking for you for hours now, and I've searched every inch of the city for you. It's late. Please come back. I love you. I just want to know that you're safe.' Awww, well isn't this cute."

Tears rose in my eyes.

"He sent her another, just moments ago, Marky. 'You might not be willing to listen to me, but please, for the love of god, call me if you find Garzonas and Mardon. I don't want you facing them alone.' Awww, we have a secret admirer. He sure sounds like a worthy suspect."

Barry…

No...

"Does she have a photo ID of him, or something," Mardon asked, stepping closer to peer down into the screen, "Maybe we can recognize him."

"He's wearing sunglasses in the picture. I can't tell."

Mardon grabbed me by the collar, and pulled me up, holding Barry's contact photo out to me. It was a picture of him and I, standing with our arms around each other, both of us wearing sunglasses. Cisco had taken it when the four of us had gone for a hike at the Keystone Cliffs.

"Is that him? Is he the Flash?" Mardon demanded, "Unless you want a taste of this gun, you're going to try and answer honestly."

"N-no," I stuttered, shaking my head, "That's not him. I swear. He's unimaginably slow. It could never be him."

Garzonas pouted. "Well, who is it then?"

Mardon narrowed his eyes at me.

"She's lying," He answered, scowling, "It is him. Call him. I want him to hear her scream. The faster he gets here, the sooner he dies."

"No, no, don't!" I protested, pressing my wrists into my armpits, hoping the pressure would do something about the pain. I back away. "You - you don't want to call him. Don't call him. He's a lead detective at the CCPD. If you get him involved, he'll - he'll bring the entire police force here to stop you. You - you don't want that. Don't call him. Please."

Mardon furrowed his eyebrows and slipped his hands into his coat pockets. "I think you're forgetting how powerful I am. I can destroy this entire city with a single storm. Tell me who the Flash is now, or-"

"It's me."

Garzonas cracked a laugh, and Mardon raised an eyebrow.

"It's you."

"Y-yes."

"You?" Garzonas inquired, stifling a chuckle, "You're a woman. The Flash is a man."

"You - you don't even sound like him," Mardon scoffed, frowning, "You're the last person on earth who could be him."

"You don't know what all of my powers are," I answered, forcing my voice to stay even, "I - I can shape shift."

"Yeah, right," Mardon muttered, stepping closer to me, "There are pictures of you and the Flash, standing next to each other, in the newspaper. You're two different people."

"Like I said, you don't know what all of my powers are," I stated coldly, wishing my sense of logic would wake up and I'd stop sputtering nonsense that would get me killed, "I have multiple ways of keeping my identity a secret."

Forgive me, Barry...

The men blinked.

"Do we believe her?" Garzonas inquired quietly.

Forgive me - for everything.

"There's only one way to find out," Mardon concluded, pulling the gun up, aiming it right for me, "Why don't you go for a little run, Flash? And show us how fast you can go?"

I shuddered, and slowly turned away.

"We'll give you a five-second head start," Garzonas added with a dark chuckle.

Tears sprang into my eyes, and I uselessly pounded my feet against the invisible pavement, desperately running deep into the fog with my hands pressed against me, hoping I'd lose the two men behind me.

I heard Garzonas laugh behind me, twirling his knife in his fingers, and Mardon grabbed me by the back of my sweater, my baseball cap being knocked off by the force.

I struggled, and tried to fight them off.

The end came anyway.

* * *

 **[Dr. Wells's POV]**

"Dr. Wells, I wanted to thank you for everything you've done for us," Caitlin stated, as she drove back to the Lab after we had a very awkward lunch together at Jitters.

"One thank-you will suffice," I replied expressionlessly, suppressing a bored sigh.

"I - I don't think you understand what it all means to each and every one of us..." she tried again, purposely taking the wrong turn.

A sad attempt at stalling.

"Caitlin, you missed the Lab," I responded, as she would expect me to.

But really, I didn't need to keep this ruse on for much longer.

"Oh! My bad - the traffic, it just..."

"Caitlin?"

"Yes?" She asked innocently, taking yet another wrong turn.

"Could we pull over?" I inquired, "I believe I hear a small ticking sound emanating from your engine. Taking a quick look wouldn't hurt."

"Sir? I don't hear anythin-"

"Call it an engineer's intuition," I declared, "Pull over."

She would've protested, but when one of the world's greatest structural physicists tells you he can sense something wrong with your car, you had best listen.

Plus, it would help her continue to stall for Cisco.

And I would finally get her out of the way.

Lucky for me, she pulled the car into a secluded parking lot.

"Could you help me out?" I asked, and Caitlin rolled down the pull-out ramp from the van and removed the restraints from my wheelchair, giving me the freedom to roll my wheelchair out.

She pulled open the hood of her car, and frowned as she tried to assess the nonexistent damage.

"I - I don't see anything wrong?" She stated, looking into the engine.

"Caitlin," I chuckled, "The only thing wrong with this picture... is you."

She furrowed her eyebrows.

"You see..." I rose from my wheelchair, standing at my full height, behind her.

The color drained from her as she saw my shadow lengthen against the engine.

I smiled down at her. "You've always trusted me, and you've always seen me in the greatest light possible," I described, "With your support, I have been able to do many great things."

"Cisco..." She murmured. A single shiver passed through her body.

She was still frozen in fear, still looking down into the engine.

Good.

I didn't need her turning around.

"Cisco was right about me," I interjected, grinning confidently as I pulled a gun out of my back pocket, and pointed it inches away from the nape of her neck. "The geo-locator read me as a metahuman, because I am one. I've always been one. I was the one sabotaging Artemis's machine. I couldn't let you all find out the truth."

I heard her exhale, her breathing shaky. "Dr. Wells... why?"

"Because I needed to protect mine and Artemis's secret," I replied, cocking the pistol, "But there's no need for that now. She knows who she is. With her on my side, I... don't really need you, or Cisco anymore."

I saw a single drop of water fall onto the car's dusty heat exchangers.

She was crying.

"Forgive me, Caitlin," I stated, "But now that Artemis knows who she is, I can't afford to leave any obstacles in my path."

"No..."

I looked away as I pulled the trigger, my aim precise and perfect.

###

The only remaining barriers in my path to success was, of course, Barry.

And Cisco.

I silently entered the Cortex, and found him comparing footage of myself talking, and my altered voice as the Reverse Flash.

On the left screen in front of him was the video of me, giving my speech when I opened the particle accelerator.

On the middle was security footage from the Central City Museum, when I had threatened Artemis.

And on the last, was footage from Hartley's cell, where he had been warning Artemis that she wasn't who she thought she was, and that I couldn't be trusted.

"Hello, Cisco."

He slowly turned around, his face pale.

"Your blood has the same positive charge that Barry's does," he mumbled, terrified, "You're a speedster."

I slowly walked towards him, clapping my hands twice. "You've always been clever, Cisco," I stated, "I've always said so."

"You're him," he continued, grimacing, "The Reverse Flash."

"You and I have never been properly introduced," I answered with a polite smile, nodding in greeting, "I am Eobard Thawne."

"Thawne. Like Eddie..."

"Let's call him a distant relative," I stated, slipping my hands into my coat pocket.

He exhaled, and rubbed his temples. "Joe was right. You were there, that night, 15 years ago, in their houses. You killed their mothers."

"It was never my intention to kill Nora, if you want to be precise," I stated, walking closer to him, "I had actually wanted to kill Barry."

"And Artemis-"

"Artemis... Well, I killed her mother to keep her out of this mess, hoping it would traumatize her," I continued, before I pressed my lips together, "It wasn't the best planning on my part."

"She wasn't here when the particle accelerator exploded," he murmured, "So why is she a metahuman?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Why are you doing this to them?" He asked, pressing his eyes shut, "You've - you're their friend. You've helped her discover the electron. You're helping him get-"

"Get faster," I interrupted, pacing around him now, "I know. A means to an end. And I'll tell you why. Because I have been stuck here. Marooned here, in this place, for fifteen long years. And the Flash... The Flash's speed is the key, to my returning to my world. To my time. And then I'll make him suffer, for all that he's done to me. And nobody can prevent that."

He wore the saddest look on his face, as tears leaked out of the corners of his eyes.

I actually felt a bit guilty.

But there would be no guilt in my victory.

"We could've helped you," he stated.

I turned around, facing him, and flicked my wrist as I raised my arm, letting it vibrate.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "You're smart, but you're not that smart. Do you know how difficult it has been, to keep all of this from you? Because, really, the truth is that I've grown quite fond of you. And in many ways, you have shown me what it's like to have a son."

I shot my hand into his chest, and he gasped, looking to me with desperation.

"But to me, you were already dead for centuries."

His body fell with a thud when I yanked my hand back out.

"No!" Someone screamed behind me, "I'm late! Cisco, no, I'm late!"

I turned and watched Henry jolt forward, placing Cisco's head in his lap, tears running down his reddened face. "No, no, what did you do?" he begged, looking back up at me with a heavy pain in his eyes, "What did you do?"

I smiled, and shrugged. "I won, Henry. In a few hours, Barry will be dead."

He sat there, holding the dead Cisco, his breathing fast and heavy as he tried to control his silent cries. He wiped his tears away with his fist, carefully laid Cisco down, and rose, anger sparking from his eyes as blue lightning. "You killed Caitlin. You killed Cisco. You're not going to get away with this."

I chuckled, and shook my head in disbelief. "Henry, I already have."

"No," he muttered, surging forward faster than I could sense.

I choked. Out of nowhere, his sharp hand had burst through my torso, and I was unable to focus on anything other than his unrelenting scowl, his dark eyes, his gaunt, pale face - the horrible, excruciating pain. "I gave you several warnings, and offered you several chances to turn back. You didn't listen to me. You thought I was bluffing, and you just killed everyone I love. When I exact my revenge on you, it will be in the worst way imaginable. You will lose."

I gasped out loud as he shot his hand back out, and slumped face forward, everything slowly blackening out.

My breaths were limited.

The last thing I saw before dying was Henry getting down on one knee, next to Cisco, kissing his two forefingers, and gently placing them onto Cisco's forehead.

"My father will save you. I'm going to make sure of it. You didn't deserve this."

* * *

 **[Barry's POV]**

Iris's hands trembled as she pulled her phone out of her pocket, and she stepped away to take the call.

The search for Joe was becoming desperate. I had called Artemis again and again to ask how she was doing, but she wasn't picking up.

She must probably still be mad at me.

But then again, neither Eddie nor any of the other cops had been able to reach her, so I wasn't so sure if it was just anger anymore.

Artemis.

I wanted more than anything to be able to fix the mess I had made with her.

I hated myself for everything I had said to her over the course of the past month.

I couldn't believe how low I had stooped.

I didn't know what kept me silent last night, when she asked if I loved Iris more than her.

The cat had caught my tongue at the worst moment possible, and that hurt her, and she drove off into the night, not wanting to be with me.

Scared, I went and looked for her, when she wouldn't pick up the phone. I needed to hug her and hold her, and let her know how sorry I was. She wouldn't have been happy to see me, but she would have been safer if she wasn't alone.

Then, when she didn't return like she said she would, I panicked and called the police, and a search began.

I had prayed with all my heart that she was safe, but then the search just kept growing cold.

Then Mardon had arrived.

He came in, and ripped Joe right out of Eddie's car, and I hadn't been able to save him, and we didn't know where to begin looking, and now there were two bodies in the search, and I was losing it.

Garzonas had placed a public bounty on my head, and Singh had stated that he believed Mardon was going to come after Iris and I as well, because we were close to Joe, and the two of us were ordered to stay at the police station where it was safe.

Artemis had been with Dr. Wells all along.

I was comforted, knowing she was with someone I could trust, but at the same time, I was irked.

She was with someone who had been trying to pull her away from me.

Someone who never approved of our relationship.

I was certain Dr. Wells was involved when Artemis pulled away from me when I hugged her when I found her again, and he was smiling when she gave me back my mother's watch. and I didn't know what to say when she finally broke up with me, and he looked me right in the eye, smiled and told me I got what I deserved.

Something was up with him.

Iris returned to me, shaken.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Barry, that was Mardon on the phone," she murmured, her voice hardly above a terrified whisper, "He - he told me he just killed the Flash, and that nobody could save Dad now. He told me to come to the waterfront, and if I bring anyone with me, or tell the police, Dad will die."

He killed the Flash?

But... I was perfectly alive.

"The waterfront?" I asked urgently.

She gave a shaky nod. Her bottom lip quivered, and she pressed her lips together as she wiped at her eyes.

"Hey," I cajoled, putting a hand on her shoulder. "Hey. We'll find him."

"I - I can't bring anyone with me," she mumbled, her voice cracking, "What am I supposed to do? How can I save him, without the police? Without the Flash?"

"Iris-"

"Barry, when Mardon had taken me, and he was flooding that building, I - I thought I would die right there," she quaked, looking away, "I was so scared, until the Flash came in, and I knew I'd be safe. Mardon said he killed him-"

"The Flash isn't dead," I stressed. "He's - he's alive. We'll find Joe."

"Barry, I can't believe this is actually happening," she wept, sniffling, "What do I do?"

I cupped her face in my hands, forcing her to look at me, my thumbs wiping away at her tears. "Iris, we'll find him. I promise I will bring him back to you. We'll save him. Come on, let's go."

Iris and I snuck out of the CCPD, and got in my car, driving us away.

We sat in silence, and I wondered what the heck Mardon meant when he said he had killed me.

Did he mean he was going to kill me?

Did he mean I was dead, symbolically?"

That I'd be dead if I tried to step in and save Joe?

Did Iris mishear?

A chill flew through my spine when I remembered what Artemis had said to me, back at the Lab, when she was preparing her metagun and pulling that baseball cap over her head.

Mardon isn't going to spare your life, if you show up. But he won't be expecting me...

Artemis, I thought, panic rising in my chest.

Iris yelped as I pounded my foot on the pedal, jerking the car forward as it sped faster.

###

I drove to the waterfront as fast as I could.

Sure enough, Artemis's car was still here.

Meaning there could still be hope for saving her, along with Joe.

The park was slightly foggier than it should have been, but the air was still clear. People were on walks with their dogs, and children chased each other in the grass.

Nobody seemed to notice the strong thunderstorm, lightning crackling to life over the ocean.

Or the fact that, far into the horizon, the water was rising in a large tidal wave.

Mardon had summoned a tsunami.

By the time it reached the shore, it would be big enough to wipe out the city.

"Iris," I stated, pulling her by the shoulder, forcing her to look at me, "You need to get out of here. Now. You need to get out of here as fast as possible-"

"What?" She shouted, frowning as she pulled my hand away and took it into hers, "Barry, I'm not leaving you-"

"You don't understand," I urged, pointing at the storm, "It's not safe. Iris, please-"

"Listen to me," she ordered, taking my other hand into hers as well, lacing her fingers through mine, "I can't leave you. Ever since that night, when you told me how you felt about me, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. At first, I was really mad. And then I realized, the reason I couldn't stop thinking about you was because I didn't want to..."

"Iris, what?" I stammered, confused.

"Barry, I've been thinking about this for a while..." she murmured, putting one hand on the side of my face, "Eddie is not the right man for me. And Artemis is not the right woman for you..."

"Hey, I hate to butt in, but I'm gonna need to stop you both right there?" Someone interrupted urgently, pulling at my sleeve, "There's a giant wave coming in. We don't really have time for this."

Relief washed over me as Iris pulled away, surprised.

There was a surprisingly tall, scrawny dark-haired kid standing next to us, his eyes red and puffy, as if he'd been crying, and there was a desperation on his face as he studied the incoming wave.

"Hi?" Iris replied, furrowing her eyebrows.

The kid looked to me. "Barry Allen?" he asked quickly, frightened, "I really shouldn't be talking to you right now, but it's an emergency, and there's no time-"

"Who are you?" I interjected, "How do you know me?"

"I'm sorry," he stated, running his hands through his hair, clearly panicked, "I really can't tell you. But please. We don't have time. You need to help me fix everything."

"Do you know where Artemis and Joe are?" I asked before I could wonder where the question came from.

"Joe's alive. Mardon has him. He'll - he'll be okay," he urged, surprising me with an answer, "I - I tried looking for Artemis. All I found was this."

He handed me a black and red baseball cap, and only then did I notice the blood on his hands.

The hat was wet...

There was something off about the shade of red...

My heart stopped, in my chest.

This hat had been bloodied.

Artemis...

"Iris," the boy said, putting his hand on her forearm, "Iris, you need to get out of here. Now. Please listen to me. You can't be here."

"Iris, he's right," I stated sternly, unable to look away from the blood on the baseball cap, "Leave."

Iris blinked at us both, and ran off.

"Who - who are you?" I stammered, facing the boy, "How do you know me, and where did you find this hat?"

"Who I am isn't important," he asserted, frowning as he studied the ocean, before he faced me with a dead serious look in his eyes. "Look, Caitlin Snow and Cisco Ramon have both been killed, and chances are Artemis has been too. Mark Mardon has Joe, half beaten to a pulp, and he's going to wipe out the entire city with that wave. You need to fix all of this."

Fear and icy adrenaline fleeted through me.

"How?" I demanded, terrified, "Caitlin and Cisco are dead?!"

"I found their bodies," he replied, voice edged with grief, "I was too late. You need to bring them back to life."

"What?!" I asked, shocked with every word he said, "Bring them back? I - I don't know what to do."

"That's okay," the boy replied, studying me, "Because I'm going to teach you."

"What?"

"Go get your costume," he ordered, "We're going time-traveling."

"My Flash costume?"

"No," He answered, rolling his eyes. "The Snoopy Dog costume you peed yourself in during the kindergarten play, back in 1992. Yes, the Flash costume! Go! We don't have time!"

"H-how'd you know about the kindergarten play?" I murmured, embarrassed, before a sudden worry filled my chest, "Wait, hold up, how do you know I'm the Flash?"

He hit his palm to his face. "Oh my god," he groaned, pressing his eyes shut, "Now I know where I get it from."

"Hold on - so, a little creep shows up out of nowhere, tells me my friends are dead, hands me my girlfriend's bloody hat, then tells me I'm going to reverse death and time-travel, and now you know I'm the Flash?" I countered, narrowing my eyes, "And - and you expect me to just go along with everything you're saying, without question?"

He scowled at me, and for a second, I almost thought he looked a bit like Artemis. "I mean, we _could_ just sit back, kick our feet up and watch the city get destroyed, and let you live the rest of your life in regret knowing you _didn't_ save everyone you loved-"

"Okay, okay!"

I jolted back to STAR Labs and returned to the waterfront, where the kid was.

I found him where I had left him, frowning worriedly at me. "For the record, you weren't going to kiss Iris, were you?"

"I - no."

"Do you like her?"

I tensed. "No. No, I only like Artemis-"

"Good," he answered. My heart stopped as I watched him burst into a tornado of blue electricity, and when he stopped, he was dressed in a sapphire-colored speedsuit, that was almost identical to mine, the mask down, "Let's keep it that way."

My jaw dropped to the floor. "You're the blue speedster I saw, a few weeks ago."

"You can fangirl later. Right now, our first priority is to stop the wave from crashing into the city. We do that by generating a vortex barrier along the coastline, creating a wall of wind that'll stop the water," the teenager described, pulling up his cowl and walking over to the edge of the docks, "That way, even if we can't make it into the space-time continuum, we can still save everyone on shore, and you can marry Iris, which means I won't really be born, and I'll probably have died to let you live. And for the record, if that happens, know that I'm the one who murdered Harrison Wells, so you could live in peace."

I blinked. "Marry Iris? I - I just said I don't even like her- Oh my god, did you say you _murdered_ Dr. Wells?"

"Judging by the force of the water's velocity in those sinusoidal waves, I'm guessing we have less than two minutes before Central City is nothing more than a mass watery grave, and I'm the only hope you have at preventing that," the boy responded, clearly irritated with my questions, "Are we going to stop it, or not?"

"We will, but-"

"Then run, dammit!"

I tensed, before I charged against the coastline, and the blue speedster ran alongside me, before he easily sped past me, his lightning a violent shade of cobalt, stringing behind him. We ran miles back and forth across the coastline, battering the shore with wind, before we turned around and ran back to keep the wind barrier strong, shooting like bullets in hyperdrive.

More than several times, the other speedster had to turn back, grab me by the hand, and pull me behind him so I could keep up with him.

If anything, though, staying close to him helped me run faster. I struggled to stay at his side.

He put his hand to my back, pushing me forward, feet rapidly pounding against the pavement. "We're almost there!" He shouted, "I can feel it!"

"What?!"

"Faster, Barry!"

I grimaced and forced an extra kick in my step, and before I knew it, the air around us surged, ripping over us anew.

"Is this good enough?" He yelled, and my brain felt buzzed, as I tried to make sense of my surroundings.

Far up ahead, STAR Labs was shining against the night.

"Barry?"

How did we get back here? We - we were running by the ocean waterfront, in broad daylight.

I barely was able to hold onto my skin as I skidded out of control, trying to stop myself, but instead I somehow ended up phasing - phasing?! - right into STAR Labs, crying out as I kicked my ankles into the ground, desperate for control of my movements again.

The next thing I knew, my head had hit something hard, and I had crashed into dense metal, a loud ringing sound resonating painfully in my ear drums.

"Barry!" I heard Cisco yell.

"Oh my god!" Artemis shrieked somewhere.

I - I was in her lab room - against her desk.

I ran, tripped and fell, and my head had banged against her desk. She was looking down at me, terrified.

Artemis wore a look of fear, phone in hand. "Mr. Luthor, I apologize but I have an emergency I need to attend to!" and then she had gathered me in her arms, my sore head against her chest. "Barry, Barry, what happened?"

Cisco, Caitlin and Dr. Wells all gathered around me, each of them asking the same thing:

"Barry, what happened?"

* * *

 **I hoped you liked that chapter, because it physically hurt me to write it.**

 **And FYI, that was the very last Dr. Wells' POV for the rest of the story.**

 **Also, some of you may be asking: why doesn't Henry just take Dr. Wells back on his own, if he's a time-traveler, and if he needs his parents to be together?**

 **\- Without Dr. Wells, Henry will never be born**

 **\- If Henry takes Wells back, chances are Wells will try to come back, and will still hunt down Barry**

 **\- Wells will probably find a way to become more powerful if he's allowed to go back to his own time**

 **\- If Henry takes Wells back, Barry and Artemis will never find out who killed their mothers**

 **You see… Henry's actually lying to Wells. He's too smart to take him back lol.**

 **I'm also assuming that, even though everyone else died, Cisco is the only one to get vibe powers because he was the only one who was killed via vibrating hand. (** **And yeah lol let's just assume Henry didn't give Wells vibing powers despite that Wells also died via murder hand.)**

 **For those of you who would like something much lighter, happier and funnier to read after delving into the dark pits of my mind, head on over and read "TUATI: Behind the Scenes." It's a comedy one-shot that shows what the Flash characters are doing when they're not "memorizing lines" for this story.**

 **Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and please please please please leave a review, and let me know what you think! :3**


	24. Daddy Issues

**[Artemis's POV]**

"Barry? Barry, are you okay?" I asked softly, the half-unconscious speedster in my arms, moaning with his eyes half open.

I honestly didn't know what had happened.

One second, he was calmly striding into my lab room, in his jeans and black coat. The next, he had violently crashed into my desk at what must have been a million miles per hour, dressed in his speed suit, the momentum pushing my desk and me in the rolly chair back, leaving scuff marks on the ground. All at once, everyone had huddled around him, worriedly asking him what had happened, but he was unresponsive, and clearly lightheaded. I immediately ended my call with Lex Luthor, and gathered Barry in my arms, and pulled his cowl back, trying to coax a response from him.

"Caitlin - ice pack," I called, but she had already arrived with one, among other medical supplies. I took the cold pack from her and gently pressed it to his forehead, while she put a bottle of water to his lips.

"Concussion?" Cisco murmured, kneeling down beside him, Dr. Wells watching with a dark worry, almost as if it was fear, playing in his eyes.

"Barry, come on..." I cajoled, lightly shaking him. The sight of the giant blotched bruise at the corner of his forehead raised goosebumps in my arms, but I could see the edges of the bruises recede, gradually healing on their own.

"Bro?" Cisco asked again.

Caitlin put an open bottle of something that smelled pungently near his nose, and he coughed.

Barry groaned as his eyes slowly fluttered all the way open, before they were filled with sudden surprise, as if he had suddenly been pricked by a thousand pins. He quickly rose to his feet, staggering from the dizziness, and began panicking. "Where - where am I?" He shouted, frantically looking around the room, "How - how did I get here? Where is he? Where did he go?"

"Barry, take it easy," Caitlin advised, looking up at him.

"Who are you looking for?" I asked cautiously, rising to my feet, slowly approaching him.

"No," he replied sharply, fear in his eyes as he pulled away from us, "Where am I? I - I - where's the waterfront? I was at the waterfront. Wh-where's the boy?"

"What boy?" Cisco asked carefully, "Barry, it's just us. You're at STAR Labs. You're safe. There's no waterfront. What happened?"

Barry put his hands to the side of his face, shaking his head no.

I put my hands on his forearms, stopping him.

"Artemis - Artemis, I don't know how I got here," he blubbered, eyes watering, "Artemis, I don't know what's going on. I don't know what happened."

I pulled his arms down and yanked him forward for a hug, arms wound tightly around him. He stood frozen, sniveling, before he slowly covered the backs of my shoulders with his arms, trembling as he crushed me in a hug that he very clearly needed.

"I love you, Artemis," he mumbled into my hair, visibly shaken, "I love you with everything I have. Please don't leave me."

"Barry, why would I leave you?" I asked, worried.

"Mr. Bartholomew Allen," Dr. Wells muttered, brows furrowing as he leaned forward in his wheelchair, squinting at Barry, "What have you gotten yourself into?"

"Barry, sit down," Cisco asserted, pulling up a chair.

Barry slowly peeled himself away from me, and stared at Cisco as if he was seeing him for the first time.

Cisco was then given his own tearful bone-crunching hug as well, then so was Caitlin, and after listening to everyone protest, Barry soon found himself forced into that chair, myself kneeling on the floor next to him, holding his hands.

"Explain." Dr. Wells ordered, picking up the water bottle off of the floor and handing it to him, "Now."

"I - I... I've been here before," Barry stammered, teary-eyed.

"You've been here before?" Caitlin repeated softly, squeezing his shoulder.

"Barry, this is Artemis's lab room," Cisco explained, crossing his arms, "You've been here thousands of times. Do you not remember?"

"Anterograde amnesia?" Caitlin murmured to herself.

"No," Barry sniffled, curling his fingers around my palm, "I've been _here_ before. To this day. I know what's gonna happen."

"What?" I questioned, watching him with concern, "You've been to this day before?"

"Yes," Barry murmured, suddenly frowning, "In - in a few moments, the metahuman alarm will go off, and it'll be a metahuman down in the South - Nicholas Black."

 _Clang! Clang! Clang!_

"Woah," I mumbled, and Barry soon sped away, surprising us all again. Caitlin, Cisco, Dr. Wells and I hurried to go to the Cortex, but before we had even left my lab, Barry returned, holding up a forty-something year old man by the collar. The man mewled protests and kicked the air as he tried uselessly to fight Barry off, but Barry tossed him into the genome influx chamber, nodding at me to do my magic.

I felt a bit unnerved by his actions - I honestly had very little clue what was going on - but in a few minutes, Black was ridden of his powers and Barry zoomed him back to the police station.

When Barry returned, he had three more men with him - a heavily built man with a shaved head, another with tattoos on his neck, his hair tied back in a greasy ponytail, and the third with a bearded, wearing a raincoat and jeans.

All three were soon tasered, and lying on my floor, spasming.

"Mick Rory would have burned down a hotel in the following week," Barry explained, arms crossed as he frowned at the men convulsing on my floor, "And Mark Mardon was going to kidnap Iris and Joe, and let a tsunami wash out the city. Garzonas here is looking for me, but I have a friend in Gotham who wants me to deliver him to him. _So-"_

Barry took the tattooed man and disappeared from the room, leaving Caitlin, Cisco, Wells and I more confused than ever. Upon returning, he vanished again with Mick Rory, presumably dropping him off at Iron Heights, and when he came back, he asked for me to cure the unresponsive Mark Mardon, before he ran off with him as well.

Barry returned in his work clothes - jeans, a button-up shirt, and black blazer - and smiled knowingly, catching me in a hug that left me smothered and bewildered.

"Artemis, you're so smart," he intoned delightfully, stroking my hair, "You're such a little genius, did you know that? Curing Mark Mardon, preventing thousands of lives from being lost. Such a little hero..."

"Um-"

"Hey, I know! Let's check out all of your inventions!" He suggested, striding over to my worktable, pulling me by the hand behind him.

"Barry?" Dr. Wells called, turning his wheelchair to face us.

"Wow, what's this one do?" Barry asked excitedly, pulling up a small machine that oddly resembled a miniature Eiffel Tower.

"Oh," I responded, "Well, it's a-"

"Satellite-operated geo-locator?" Barry completed for me, with a hopeful smile on his face, "It'll track and locate all of the remaining metahumans within Central City, right?"

I frowned. "Barry, that's... exactly... what it is. How did you know?"

Barry picked up the machine, studying it. "Genius. Pure genius," he commented, before setting it back down and placing a screwdriver in my hand. "Artemis, do you think you could look over the voltaics chips in the baseline circuits? Just to be sure there aren't any issues? I mean, a streamlined ATX motherboard design like this - we don't want our readings to be frazzled by static, now, do we?"

"I - of course, Barry," I answered awkwardly, opening the main compartment in the geo-locator. I picked up the necessary tools and began double-checking the internal build, when Barry's arms framed mine and took my hands in his, guiding my fingers.

"Here. I'll help," he stated, dropping a kiss on my cheek.

I blushed, and Barry released one hand to angle my jaw towards his, softly grazing his lips over mine.

"We've been arguing a bit recently, haven't we?" He murmured, still tipping my chin up.

"Umm... yeah," I responded, guilt swarming through me, "You had been ignoring me after we had that fight a few days ago, but-"

"No more arguing," Barry asserted, wearing a small smile as he bowed his head closer to mine again, "You'll always win. I'm not going to risk losing you."

"Barry, you dork," I squeaked, blushing more deeply as I leaned to the side, trying to avoid him. He roped an arm around my waist, catching me, and I clamped a hand over his mouth, surprising him. "Where is your sense of self-control?" I hissed, reddening, "There are other people in the room!"

Barry blinked, and we both turned to see Caitlin, coolly ignoring us by reading something on her phone, Dr. Wells, holding his head with his two fingers at his temple, his thumb at his jaw, scowling, and Cisco with an impish grin, arm propped up on the table, watching us eagerly.

"We were wondering when you'd remember us," Caitlin stated expressionlessly, eyes still glued to her phone.

"No, we weren't," Cisco countered, "I was just about to go grab some popcorn and get comfortable and watch _you_ guys get comfortable."

"Trigeminal headache?" Dr. Wells muttered, bringing his hand away to openly glare at us.

"What?" Barry replied.

"Trigeminal headache," Wells repeated, focusing his scowl on Barry, "Mr. Allen, may I have a word with you alone?"

Barry tensed and surprised me by locking my hand in his before following Dr. Wells, bringing me with him.

Dr. Wells's scowl deepened at the sight of our interlaced hands. "I said _alone_ , Barr-"

"No," Barry stated, "I want her to come with me."

Dr. Wells paused, and crinkled his eyebrows.

"Is something wrong, Dr. Wells?" Barry asked innocently, though there was an underlying twinge of defiant annoyance in his voice.

"Not at all," Dr. Wells responded arrogantly, his voice strained as he continued driving his wheelchair, "Come along, _Artemis."_

###

"You ruptured the time continuum, didn't you?" Dr. Wells accused softly, glowering at Barry, once the three of us were in his office, "You're experiencing temporal reversion."

"Yeah, I am, I guess," Barry replied, nonchalantly folding his arms over his chest.

"Temporal reversion?" I inquired, gawking at Barry, "As in, you traveled _back_ in time? That's why you're so confused and you know everything?"

"How long?" Dr. Wells interjected.

"Three weeks?" Barry guessed.

"Three weeks _?_ " I gasped in disbelief, "You're coming back from 3 weeks into the _future_?!"

"It's like I'm living it all over again," Barry stated, smiling at me, "Except I know what's going to happen, so I can avoid those mistakes, and the city can be safe-"

"No, no, _no_ ," Wells urged sharply, shaking his head, angry "You're not supposed to do that. Time is an extremely fragile construct, and any deviation, no matter how small, could result in cataclysm. You need to let things happen the way they did before."

"It's a bit too late for that?" Barry replied, astonished by Wells' reaction, "Mark Mardon and the other metas had done some pretty bad stuff. Artemis and I just took care of them. The future's safe now."

"Dr. Wells, why would you tell Barry he can't change the time stream?" I murmured, confused.

"It's - it's a key concept in hypothetical physics," he replied worriedly, "Certain things are just meant to be. You shouldn't have captured Mardon and the others. Whatever tragedies you just averted, time will find a way to replace, possibly in worse ways."

"Trust me," Barry asserted, "Nothing could be worse than the tidal wave I had seen-"

"No, do _not_ tell me about the future you've experienced. Do not tell me anything," Dr. Wells forbidded harshly, "Do not tell anyone, especially not Artemis. By taking down Black, Rory, Mardon, Garzonas, you've changed that timeline in more ways than you can count, you've unleashed an unknown danger upon all of us, upon everyone in the city. Now here's what you're going to do: you're going to retrace each step, you're going to repeat what you said exactly how you said it, you're going to do everything the same as before, and if lives are lost, then so be it - you are dealing with forces outside of your control, and destiny is not something you can take into your own hands, Barry Allen, I assure you."

Barry arched an eyebrow up at him.

 _If lives are lost, then so be it?_

"So, anyways," I asserted, defiantly rising from my chair, "Thank you for the nice little lecture. You clearly have no idea what you're talking about. Barry, can we go now?"

"Absolutely," and he rose from his chair as well, the two of us stubbornly turning away.

"You're not _listening_ ," Dr. Wells snarled, and we faced him again to find him practically whipping his glasses off of his face. "You're not doing anyone a favor by changing their fates, Barry. You can't avoid what happened in the alternate time stream. Those same events will recur, and they will be amplified for better or for worse. What you just saw was the best of it. By changing that, you will unleash a very horrible chain of events - one you will not be prepared for, one you can't stop. What happens once your three weeks of certainty are over? What will you do when things spiral out of control, when you don't know what will happen?"

"Mardon's out of the way. People will be safe, and they'll stay that way for as long as I'm here," Barry assured, before he faced me with a smile, "Hey, you wanna go to Fenton's? They just introduced five new flavors of ice cream to their menu."

"How could I say no to ice cream with you?"

Barry grinned and planted a kiss at my cheek before he paused, and frowned at Dr. Wells. "Sir, you have issues with Artemis and me being together. Why?"

Dr. Wells curiously frowned.

Declaim what Barry just said, I silently ordered.

We've been together for more than half a year now. You can't still be salty about that.

Wells shrugged casually. "What do you mean? Isn't it obvious? You clearly aren't the right man for her."

"Dr. Wells!" I half-shouted, aggravated and disappointed, surprising both of the men.

Barry actually took a step back.

"That's - that's such an informal thing to say! You're my boss and advisor," I scorned, "Who gives you the authority to decide something so personal like that about my life?"

He frowned. "Artemis, I'm only doing my best to look out for you. It's - It's what your father would have wanted."

"Really now?" I scoffed, "Because my father would have been proud of my success, and would trust me enough to make my decisions myself at this age. And honestly, what is wrong with Barry and I being together? There's no way either of my parents would have disapproved of him, so how can you say you know what my dad would have wanted?"

Dr. Wells became agitated, and began fiddling with his glasses. "Artemis, the two of you have been arguing. Think clearly about what you're doing-"

"We're not arguing," I asserted, a knee-jerk response as always, before an ice cold realization settled in my chest, "Wait - wait, how do you know that? We haven't said a word to anyone else about it."

He widened his eyes. "I - I - it's very clear in the way you two act in public. You - you act stiff, and your happiness seems forced, and, and," he took a deep breath, recomposing himself, "Think of it this way. There are more differences between the two of you than you care to admit, differences you cannot compromise. I know you both well enough to say that. I just don't want you to be heading down the wrong path."

"And what's the right path, then?" I retorted, furious.

He drew unsure glances between the two of us. "For - for you both to break up-"

"And that's more than enough of what I needed to hear," I muttered, turning around. I frowned, surprised, at the sight of Barry watching our discourse with a smug expression on his face, arms contently crossed. He winked at Wells before slinging an arm over my shoulders, the two of us leaving.

"I ought to file charges against him for lack of professionalism," I hissed as we entered the Cortex, "How'd you know that he still wants us separated?"

"Well..." Barry began, "Something horrible may have happened between us in that other timeline that I just came from. I have reason to believe that Wells made it worse than it needed to be."

"Whatever that horrible thing was, make sure it doesn't happen again," I ordered, before feeling weak inside, "How did you know he was responsible? What exactly happened?"

"I truly don't have the heart to tell you," he answered grimly, looking away, "But... after we went through that little disaster, Wells had looked at me right in the eye, smiled, and told me I was getting what I deserved, so that raised a few hairs on my arms."

The sad thing was, I could actually imagine Wells saying something like that, now that I knew he still didn't want us together.

 _For-for you both to break up..._

I shuddered, and Barry pulled me in closer as we walked down the hallway.

"That man gives me the creeps sometimes," I confessed, resting my head on his shoulder as we walked, "Honestly. You time traveled. You know what mistakes to avoid now. I'd give anything for that kind of certainty. We've been hunting down Mardon for weeks, and you knew where to find him in minutes. I completely believe you when you say you prevented lives from being lost. So... So why would Wells be such a prick about that? Why would he act like he knows the consequences of time travel?"

"I have no idea, Artemis," he replied.

"He said it was a law of physics," I continued, "Not to be self-centered or anything, but I'm pretty proud of my background in science, and I'm more than certain that the fundamental laws of nature _prevent_ time travel. So how would Harrison Wells, a physicist, have known about time travel - something every physicist would vehemently deny - let alone know of the effects of deviations in the time stream?"

Barry took a deep breath, and turned around to see if we were followed, before he faced me with a serious expression. "Artemis, you're onto something. _I_ didn't even know I could run fast enough to travel back in time. The idea's still sending shivers down my spine. Wells - Wells is acting like he's an expert on this stuff. If speedsters can time travel, and I'm the only speedster Wells has met-"

"And if this is your _first_ time time-traveling-"

"How would Dr. Wells know so much already?" Barry asked me, tensing, "Do you think he knows other speedsters?"

"The man in yellow?" I murmured.

Barry nodded.

Wells was a creep, I thought, but he wasn't that big of a creep. He couldn't possibly be allied with our enemy in secret.

But... Joe _did_ bring up his suspicions that Wells was involved in the murders of our mothers.

"If... If he is working with the Reverse Flash, it would explain why he knows so much about being able to help you," I replied numbly.

Barry paled, and squeezed my shoulder.

"We should lay low about this, until we know more," he concluded, his voice quivering, "Right now, my limbs are still jelly from running at Mach 3 alongside another speedster who disappeared, and I think I'm going to need a _lot_ of ice cream and a _very_ nice night with my girlfriend to help me feel better."

I grinned and brushed my mouth over his for a quick kiss before opening the door to my lab room, where we found Caitlin and Cisco, both very flustered.

"I'm telling you this can't be right," Cisco asserted worriedly.

"But Cisco, the machine is working in full order," Caitlin replied, shaking her head as she stood at the table where my geo-locator was, "Artemis double-checked the voltaics. There's nothing wrong."

"Hey guys, what's up?" I asked, walking over to them, Barry beside me.

"The geo-locator is reading _four_ metahumans in STAR Labs," they both responded anxiously.

"Four?" I repeated incredulously, picking up the tablet on the table, "It should only be reading one. Barry's the only metahuman here."

"Yeah, well, apparently, you, myself, and Dr. Wells are also metahumans," Cisco retorted, rolling his eyes, "Me? With metahuman powers? Can you believe it?"

"Why would _I_ be a metahuman?" I challenged, frowning as I took in the readings, "I was in school in Massachusetts last December, studying for my winter finals. I have proof I wasn't in Central City. I can't be a metahuman. This is wrong."

"And Wells is a cripple," Caitlin added, perturbed, "He can't possibly be hiding any physical abilities either. But the machine is working perfectly. There are no flaws in your design."

"What part of me being 700 miles away when the particle accelerator exploded did you not understand?" I challenged, confused, "I'm the last person in the room who would be a metahuman. The machine is not working perfectly."

"Artemis?" Barry whispered, a look of fear in his eyes as he leaned closer, "Wells is being read as a metahuman. Do you think this has anything to do with what we were just saying about him?"

I gulped.

 _If_ my machine was working successfully, and Wells was indeed a metahuman, then it meant he had more secrets than he let on.

"It might," I answered, before I began fretting again, picking up my geo-locator and assessing the insides, "But the readings aren't correct anyway. I am not a metahuman, and neither is Cisco, so who knows if Wells is one too?"

"I _cannot_ believe you're accusing me of such a thing," a cold voice behind us scolded.

We turned and saw Wells wheel into the room, irate.

"You all should know better than to assume I'm a metahuman," he berated furiously, gathering his things from my counter, "Yes, the dark matter gave some people very unique strengths, but it also possessed the power to take _away_ abilities. I was hit by the radioactive waves, and I haven't been able to move a muscle in my legs since that night. Does _that_ do well to explain why I'm being picked up by your little machine?"

"So, you're saying you _are_ a metahuman, but at the same time, you aren't?" Cisco summarized innocently.

"A reverse meta, yes."

A sharp adrenaline tingle pricked at my spine.

A _reverse_ meta.

The worried look displayed on Barry's face revealed he was thinking the same thing.

"If the four of you will be so kind, I'll be going home now. I've had enough of your foolish stubbornness for one day," Wells muttered, before glaring at Barry. "Remember what I told you," he ordered, his eyes darkening, "Do everything as you had done before."

"I will, sir," Barry promised, quickly throwing me a furtive grin that led me to believe otherwise.

Dr. Wells nodded at us before he wheeled out of my room, passing by my genome influx chamber as he left.

Caitlin was the first to speak up.

"That doesn't explain why either of _you_ two are being read as metahumans," she reminded us, before taking both Cisco and me by the hands and leading us out of the room, "There's only one way to prove the readings are wrong. I need to run medical tests on you both."

"But Caitlin," Barry protested in his adorably naive way, "I wanted to get ice cream with Artem-"

Her icy glare quickly shut him up, and Cisco and I playfully protested in vain as she forced us both into her lab like children, drawing blood, checking our heart rate, body temperature, and other vitals, before taking MRI's, Barry rolling his eyes as he watched, leaning against the doorway.

She took forever with her tests, but when she emerged, apparently all Cisco had was abnormal activity in his brain's hippocampus.

"Let me know if you start encountering difficulties with your memory," Caitlin advised, frowning as she looked over the results, "If you forget key events, or even unimportant ones, or if you remember things that don't make sense. It might be something serious..."

"Yeah, thanks, Dr. Dramatic," Cisco muttered, slipping his jacket back on, before he grinned, "So, can Artemis and I go now?"

"Yeah," I repeated, hopping off the bed, "Can we leave? Fenton's is gonna close soon."

"Not so fast," Caitlin asserted worriedly, catching my arm and pulling me back, "You... You've got something a little more serious. I'd like to talk to you about it in private."

"She's pregnant," Cisco blurted knowingly.

"What?" Caitlin and I both asked, heat automatically rising in my cheeks.

"Excuse you?" Barry murmured seriously, raising an eyebrow.

"Artemis is pregnant, isn't she?" Cisco inquired eagerly, "Oh, this is adorable. You're being picked up as a metahuman not because _you're_ a metahuman, but because you have a baby metahuman fetus-"

"Cisco?" Barry asked sternly.

"Oh wait, right," Cisco replied with a snap, his smirk turning evil, "I forgot you guys _don't_ actually have a sex life-"

Barry jolted forward, and Cisco was unable to finish his sentence due to Barry's hand immediately covering his mouth.

"How does he know?" I finally asked, blatantly embarrassed as I faced Barry, "Did you tell him?!"

"No! Of course not!" Barry replied, turning bright red, "He - he found out!"

"Say that again," I ordered, "And this time, with some intelligence."

"Artemis, I _swear_ I didn't tell him anything-"

Cisco peeled Barry's hand off of his mouth, wearing his omnipresent wily grin. "Oh, no, Barry told me _everything_ ," he answered slyly, "He's got a little problem with the speed that makes things super tricky-"

"Don't listen to him!" Barry argued, planting his hand back over Cisco's face.

"- and he doesn't know how to control it," Cisco continued, maneuvering away from Barry, smiling victoriously, "Trust me. I'm doing you both a favor by telling Caitlin."

"I'm a doctor of genetics and neurology," she stammered, dumbfounded, "I treat issues affecting areas such as cellular nucleus, the brain, spine and nervous system... not... _those_ areas..."

"Well, who else is Barry supposed to ask about this?" Cisco countered, slipping out of Barry's grip yet again, "You want him to ask Wells instead?"

Barry paused, and stopped chasing after Cisco. He nervously scratched his hand and faced Caitlin with an uneasy expression. "I - he's right. I can't go up to any regular doctor with this, without revealing my secret identity. And there is no way on earth I'd ever ask Dr. Wells. And... And it's kind of annoying, to be honest..."

Caitlin blinked.

"You know what? I'm just going to let you two get back to whatever it was you were doing," Barry answered with a nervous laugh, as he grabbed Cisco again, "We'll leave you two alone, and I'm going to have a nice long talk about personal boundaries with my dear friend Cisco. Bye."

"Bye," Caitlin and I both responded.

Cisco blew us as a kiss before Barry zipped away with him, gold lightning dissipating in his wake.

Caitlin turned to me, anxious. "There's - there's no actual chance of you being pregnant, is there? I really was hoping to take a few x-rays, and some of these tests might not be safe for pregnant women, and, well..."

"It's fine," I assured with a shaky laugh, "I'm - I'm way too young for kids right now. Not that I'm thinking of having kids. Not that Barry and I want to have kids. N-not that we talked about it. I mean, we didn't - we haven't actually been able to - you know what? I'll just stop talking."

She crinkled her eyebrows. "So, what kind of problem does Barry have, exactly?"

"Wow, talk about patient confidentiality, right?" I joked, beyond uncomfortable.

Caitlin's expression turned into an unimpressed frown, and she put her hand at her waist.

"Ugh. Fine," I relented, turning serious again, "If you'd really like to know, Barry has this tendency to... kind of vibrate and lose control when he's aroused."

She raised a single eyebrow, and watched as I pulled back my long sleeve, revealing skin that was pebbled with scars.

"We usually stop before things get out of hand, which usually means we stop _very_ early - before we even do anything, to be honest - but... we kind of pushed it, last Christmas," I described awkwardly, as Caitlin ran a finger down my textured forearm, frowning.

I quickly rolled my sleeve back once she let go. "But - but can we go back to whatever it was you wanted to talk to me about, before Cisco so kindly interrupted us?"

She nodded and bit her lip, and handed me a printed photograph of biomolecules. Some of them looked familiar.

"This is a picture of some of the genes in Barry's DNA," she described politely, pointing to the Y-shaped structures, "And _that_ particular gene is located in every single cell in his body. It has an imbalanced positive charge that can electrify his cells, allowing him to run incredibly fast by changing his genetic buildup altogether. You can tell by analyzing the age-sensitive proteins that comprise the gene that Barry's only had his abilities since the particle accelerator exploded."

"Why are you showing me this?" I asked quietly, "I already know all of this. I'm the one who discovered the gene."

"See, that's where things get a little strange," she continued, taking the picture away and handing me another - one that was very similar in structure, but much different in arrangement.

I studied it for a second, before I shrugged. "I don't get what you're trying to show me."

She bit her lip again, before she cleared her throat and sat down beside me. "Artemis, that's a sample of _your_ DNA."

I blinked, and goosebumps trailed my arms. "But... Caitlin, this picture has the speed gene in it. I'm no speedster."

"Your geo-locator, and my test results, prove otherwise."

The picture fell from my hands and fluttered onto the floor.

I gulped, before I faced Caitlin. "Then my geo-locator and your test results are _both_ wrong. There's no way-"

"Have you been transmutating your own blood, Artemis?" She asked softly, though the accusation was strong in her eyes, "All your knowledge of nuclear genetics... and all the time you've been spending with Barry..."

An anger brewed in my chest, and I put my hand to her forearm, though it wasn't with hurtful intentions. "I've seen more than enough science fiction movies to know bad things happen when scientists perform unorthodox experiment on themselves."

"Artemis, I'm serious."

"And so am I," I answered, getting up, "Caitlin, we've been over this. I am not in this to hurt Barry, and - and did you truthfully just accuse me of turning my blood into my boyfriend's? Because that is so... _screwed up_ , no matter how you look at it. You just accused me of trying to turn into my boyfriend. I'm going to _puke."_

"Artemis..."

"And I was in school, cramming for finals, and working on getting my Honors thesis accredited so I could graduate early, back in December 2014," I muttered stubbornly, picking up my sweater, "I was nowhere near Central City when the particle accelerator exploded. Both of our results are dead wrong."

"Artemis, if you would just listen to me-"

"No, Caitlin, I've had more than enough of your-"

She grabbed me by the hand and forced me to turn around. "I never thought it would be you, working your own blood like that. But I was kind of hoping it _was_ , because that would be the simplest explanation, and I could yell at you, Barry could be grossed out, you could spend time in the Pipeline prison and we could all go home. But if it's not you, then it means this whole deal about the Reverse Flash and Barry and you is _much_ more complicated than we think."

She handed me a thick file of warm, freshly-printed paper, and pulled out a sheet filled with statistics, displaying several errors in comparison. "I also ran a test of it alongside Barry's gene. Both are very similar in structure, and clearly share the same purpose, but yours has been damaged due to environmental factors, so it's been inactive for a very long time. It explains why you've been able to pass as a human for all these years, and why your dietary and biomechanical needs, and your physiology, aren't like Barry's."

I scowled in confusion.

She pointed to a certain line on the scripture. "I carbon-dated the age-sensitive biomolecular proteins in your speed gene. And... And I found that you didn't get it from any genetic alterations, like Barry did with the dark matter."

"So... so what is it?"

"Artemis, your speed gene is almost 22 years old. _You're_ almost 22 years old," Caitlin stated nervously, putting a gentle hand to my arm, speaking slowly, "That means you've had this gene since before you were even born, when you were conceived in the womb."

"Um..."

"Which leads me to two possible explanations," she answered cautiously, as she pulled out yet another chart of statistics and bio-graphs, "One of your parents was hit by dark matter... Or one of your parents was a speedster. Both of which essentially mean the same thing."

My stomach lurched, and I took a step back, forcing a nervous laugh. "Caitlin, I..."

"It would do well to explain why the Reverse Flash killed your parents, and why he's coming after you and Barry," she stated softly, pity painted across her face.

"My - my parents were not speedsters," I asserted nervously, running a hand through my hair, beads of cold sweat forming at my hairline, "I'm sure of it."

"How so?" Caitlin asked, concerned.

"I - I just know it," I sputtered, holding up my hands in surrender, "Please, Caitlin. You have to believe me."

"Artemis, you're going to need to be a little more convincing," She murmured, "There's no other explanation for why you have this in your genome. One of your parents had to have been a metahuman."

I vigorously shook my head no. "Caitlin, I may have been just six years old, but I promise you. My parents were completely normal people. They weren't up to anything fishy. I don't know how I got this gene, but it _wasn't_ from them."

She wore a worried frown, but nodded, and took the file away from me.

"Do you mind if I run a few more tests?"

I nodded shakily, and removed my sweater again, trying not to shiver.

Caitlin gave me a small smile, and took my hands in hers, trying to be supportive. "If... If there's any good that can come out of this, it would probably be the fact that you've got a good set of selective chemical sensors. It explains why you and Barry are so attracted to each other. You both transmit unique pheromones, which probably clued you both into your genetic compatibility with each other, and you might not remember, but he _did_ sort of accidentally give you a tiny electric shock when you first walked in here-"

"Caitlin, you're embarrassing me," I mumbled numbly, before I exhaled and forced a tiny smile, pressing back tears.

Caitlin ran through the rest of her tests, most of which I had seen her go through with Barry, during his weekly checkups. She checked my muscle mass and fat percentage, my vitals, including blood pressure and circulation speed, heart rate, respiration, health stats, inputs and outputs, brain activity, the full works.

Barry had great numbers.

Me? Well, it's better not to say.

But it's not like the results surprised us.

Barry was the Flash.

Standing tall at 6'2" with a 180-pound build made of pure, lean muscle, he was a man whose body had been redefined for the sole purpose of being able to run at breakneck speeds.

I was... well, I was Artemis.

I stood at 5'5". (The height difference between myself and Barry made for awesome hugs. Don't judge.) and my physique was the result of my preference for Netflix over Crossfit. I was a nerd who was exceptionally skilled at physics, applied math and chemistry with a proficient hand at engineering, and every Sunday night, I forced my boyfriend to watch the new episode of _Once Upon A Time_ with me.

Yeah.

Sign me up for the next available position as a cool superhero.

Caitlin frowned, and tapped her finger against the newest sheet of results that had been printed out. "I don't understand why this gene is inactive. It's frustrating me. According to the scans I did of your gene activity, it appears that you subconsciously _had_ your abilities for the first six years of your life. Then bam. All gone, never to be active again."

"I had my abilities for the first six years of my life?" I retorted skeptically, "I'm sorry. I'm still having trouble processing all of this. You're saying I actually _was_ a speedster."

"Yes," she stated, reading through the rest of her test results, furrowing her eyebrows, "I'm... I'm guessing your powers became... I don't know... shocked, or forced into dormancy when you lost your parents? It's the only logical explanation I can think of. Genes don't just become inactive like this."

I didn't believe her.

I tried to think back to my childhood, when I lived with my parents.

I didn't remember running incredibly fast.

I didn't remember heroic lightning stringing behind me.

I didn't remember any of that.

I remembered passing out from time to time, due to strong hunger pangs _despite_ eating almost as much as my 6 ft. tall father did.

I remembered my parents, stressing because of me, wondering why I ate so much, why I was so energetic.

I remembered an indescribably fear-stricken and worried Papa, getting down on one knee to urge me to be careful after I had miraculously pushed his huge desk and bookshelf to the side to retrieve a fallen toy, at the mere age of 5.

I remembered visits to the park, racing my feet on the pedals of my bike so hard that the screws came loose and the bike came completely undone. My parents would come chasing after me, panting, calling for me to slow down so they could catch up.

I remembered my dad, holding me in his lap in his lab, smiling as he explained his science to me, praising me for being so smart at such a young age, displaying my inventions and drawings on his shelf in his office. My mother would clap her hands with glee as I glided through logarithms while other kids my age still struggled with single-digit addition.

I remembered my dad installing a nightlight in my room, my bookshelf lined with science fiction, classics, and various textbooks written by himself, Stephen Hawking, Harrison Wells, Richard Feynman. I'd stay up all night reading because I just couldn't sleep, and the light from the bulb drove my mother insane.

I remembered the only time I had heard my parents arguing.

It was in their room, behind closed doors.

The anonymous death threats had been continuing again.

I had been told to go to my room and draw them a picture, wait for them to come back out.

I disobeyed, and crept into the hall, putting my ear to their bedroom door.

"She's not human, Ariadne. Whoever that man was - his child, the child you have given birth to? She's a _demon."_

"Laurus," I heard Mama reprimand sternly, "She loves you. How can you say that about her?"

"I - I love her too, but you can't deny something isn't right about her. You went into labor after only four months. That is medically impossible, and the child should have died, she should have been nothing more than a shriveled up fetus. Four months, Ari, and she was fully developed, and completely healthy."

"Can't you be happy about that? We've always wanted a child, and we finally have one. She's beautiful, intelligent, and loving. Why do you need to be so negative about it?"

"She's five years old, weighs 38 pounds, and ate $400 worth of food in the past five days. After all that excessive caloric intake, she comes back to us a few hours later, and casually asks what we're having for dinner. Ari, she has the vocabulary and understanding which exceeds that of a 16 year old and she reads, writes and speaks three languages. I unconditionally love her, and I am proud to be the one raising her but we don't know what she is, or what she'll grow into. We _don't_ know where that man is, who he was, or why he wants us dead, and this terrifies me. She has something to do with all of this. I know she does. And you do too."

"So what do you want me to do? Hand her over to him? He's going to kill her. You know he will."

"And I don't want that. I would lay my own body down before I let anyone do so much as touch a hair on her head. Nothing brings me more joy than the sight of her, squealing as she races into my arms with smiles and kisses when I come home tired from work," Papa had assured, "But... but this man wants something from us, and I don't know what it is, and I just don't want any of us to get hurt. You've already been hurt by him once. I don't know what'll happen to me if I have to see our family go through that again."

I heard a soft sound that must have been a reassuring kiss. "Nothing of that sort will happen to us again. You need to be a little more brave. Come on."

Suddenly, the door had opened, and both of the Van Kleisses were staring down at me in shock.

"Artemis..." my mother murmured, "How much did you hear-"

"Well, if it isn't my little sneak," Papa interrupted with a joke, putting on a smile as he picked me up. He kissed my cheek and ruffled my hair. "Did you draw that picture for me?"

I shook my head no, and pouted. "You called me a demon."

Mama scowled, feigning surprise, and gently slapped Papa on his shoulder, before grabbing and pulling on his ear, him protesting and pretending to be in pain. "You dolt. Why would you call my little angel something so horrid and insensitive?!"

"But demon she is," Papa intoned, hugging my small body before he tickled me, "You need to see this little monster attack a plate of curly fries. She eats more than I do, and I thought _I_ was the monster here."

I was giggling uncontrollably as Papa drove more tickles into my skin, and he dropped another kiss before he walked down the stairs. "Come. She must be hungry again. Let's get this little vampire something to eat before she gets impatient and bites my head off."

I placed a kiss on his cheek and hugged him around his neck, and Mama laced her fingers through his free hand, resting her head on his shoulder as we left the house.

We went out to eat that night. My mother was left in tears, laughing hard as her 34 year old husband and 5 year old daughter both had a mini eating contest right there in the restaurant.

"She defies the law of conservation of matter!" Papa declared, astounded as I finished off another hot dog before he playfully pinched my cheek, "She's eaten half of her body weight already! Where does all that food disappear, in that tiny body of hers?!"

"It vanishes, never to be seen again," I teased in my little kid voice, as Mama wiped ketchup off of my face, Papa handing me my drink, "My stomach must be a black hole."

"But see here, silly," Mama spoke up, eyes shining as she corrected me, smiling beautifully, "Black holes evaporate at the end of their cycles, and the emission of radiation reverses the process, so all of that matter comes back in the form of light and energy. The overall mass of the system is still conserved. So tell us. Where does all that food go? What are you?"

"I don't know... But I know energy increases as matter decreased in black holes," I answered blankly, "So I guess I'm just _super_ hungry?"

Mama and Papa both chuckled, and looked at each other, shaking their heads in disbelief.

"She answers such complex questions concerning her human existence with such simple prose. She truly makes us look bad-"

"We got PhD's for nothing, Laurie-"

They laughed heartily when I asked if we were having dessert, and sandwiched my face between adoring kisses.

After they had been killed, I lost the will to eat anything.

"Caitlin?"

She was in the monitoring room, working through the systems that oversaw Barry's treadmill.

"Hey, Caitlin?" I asked again, entering the room.

"Mmm?" She replied, looking up from her screen.

"Could you look into the details of my birth?" I asked in a small voice, "There's a very compelling reason why the Reverse Flash is hunting me, and why my parents are dead. I know they weren't speedsters. They were regular people. If I inherited this speed gene, I didn't get it from them."

"Are you saying you may be adopted?" She inquired.

"I - I have no idea..."

She frowned, but nodded her head. "I promise I'll do what I can," She assured politely, before gesturing towards the Cosmic Treadmill, "In the meantime, may I run one last test?"

I glanced down at my clothes. An old blouse, well-worn jeans, and beat up sneakers.

I could be running in worse, I thought, consenting. I tied my hair up into a ponytail and hopped onto the treadmill, and Caitlin joined me, calibrating the settings before she returned to the monitoring room. Her voice came on over the PA.

 _(So... As you already know, the Cosmic Treadmill is engineered to respond to your bio-signatures and energy levels. It'll only go as fast as you can, so you won't be flying back into the wall any time soon, but Cisco built it with unique aerodynamic suspension so it will help you build your own speed. Barry uses it to train and try to push his limits to go faster. Maybe you can do the same? I'm curious to see if we can perhaps rebuild your speed back up.)_

Shivers spasmed over my spine again.

I couldn't believe any of this was happening.

I didn't know whether I should be excited or miserable, confused or full of certainty.

Miserable seemed like a good option.

Super speed or not, our new leads all pointed to my parents being dead because of me.

 _(Ready, Artemis?)_

"Ready," I lied.

The machine whirred to live, and with a heavy dread settling in my chest, I began walking in place, the running belt moving under my feet.

I took a deep breath, and forced myself to pick up my pace.

I didn't feel any exciting surge of adrenaline, nor any electricity seeping into my muscles.

My heart pounded to the hard beat of my feet over the treadmill, but nothing extraordinary was happening.

This wasn't me, I thought.

I was not a speedster, and even if I had been once in my life, it was not a mantle I could ever accept again.

If there was a way to bring back my so-called powers, I didn't want it, because I felt angry and guilty and torn over this new identity.

My parents - my heroes - had been slain, and my existence played a part in influencing their early deaths.

Being a speedster would not be something I could live with.

"What's going on in here?" A curious male voice asked.

I stopped running, and the Cosmic 'Dread'mill paused as well. A confused Barry entered the adjacent monitoring room, where Caitlin was.

Barry frowned, concerned as I joined them. "Why were you running on my treadmill?"

"Oh," Caitlin began, "Well, we found that Artemis is-"

"In need of a good workout, nothing more, nothing less," I completed for her, wishing the dejection would disappear from my systems.

Along with the speed gene.

Caitlin looked at me, surprised.

"It's past 11 o' clock," Barry stated, furrowing his eyebrows, "You guys have been working for over 2 hours. Is everything okay? Didn't you say you had something you needed to discuss serious with Artemis?"

Caitlin studied me worriedly, and I hoped she understood my silent pleas. She turned off the monitors and imaging systems, brushing off her skirt as she rose.

"Nothing's wrong, Barry," she promised, confusion hidden in her tone, "We just... We were just experimenting. Cisco had said there were issues with the treadmill. You were out, so I asked Artemis to test it, hoping we could figure out what was wrong."

"Turns out it was working just fine," I declared, giving Caitlin a thankful squeeze of her shoulder.

Barry didn't buy it. He shrugged in question. "Did you find out why your geo-locator read you as a metahuman?"

"Small technical issue that arose with my own biostatic signature, coming into contact with the geo-locator's satellite systems," I lied, forcing an easy smile, "Typical case of creation falling in love with creator. I had forgotten that the geo-locator would always track me too, since I used myself as a test subject in order to examine the accuracy behind the callibration, so to speak."

"So what are you two still doing here?" Barry asked again.

"I - well, you see," Caitlin stammered nervously, "I had a lot of unfinished work, and, well, Dr. Wells needed me to finish up a report on something, and I had a systemic operation I needed to double-check, and-"

"Caitlin?" Barry interjected smoothly, his arms crossed.

She unexpectedly blushed, and I found myself grinning, watching her fluster.

"The two of you can leave, if you want," she continued awkwardly, "I still have plenty of work I need to catch up on, and Dr. Wells will want these tests finished by tomorrow, and - and what are you doing?"

A crooked smirk tipped on Barry's lips as he stepped forward, making her all the more nervous as she stepped back.

"Dr. Snow, I really think you need some time off. Maybe go home and relax, because you've been working a little too hard these past few days," he crooned, and before she knew it, he had scooped her up, winked at me, and sped off with her, papers fluttering behind him.

I couldn't help but giggle. Awkward nerd or not, Barry had ways of charming everyone.

I squealed and raced into his arms when he came back for me a few seconds later, and he swept me off of my feet, both of us catching each other in a passionate kiss.

"Fenton's must be closed now, isn't it?" I murmured sadly, my arms around his neck, "Sorry we took so long..."

Barry sighed, but smiled, and bowed his head to drop a kiss on my nose. "Well, no decent restaurant stays open til midnight, unless you want to go to Big Belly Burger or to some lowlife bar. Neither of which are at your level."

"What about elsewhere? Like on the West Coast?" I asked, as Barry picked me up. I twirled a piece of his dark hair around my fingers, and kissed his cheek. "It's, what, 9 o' clock, Pacific Standard Time? I'm more than certain we can find good ice cream someplace where ice cream shops are actually still open."

Barry smiled and adjusted his hold on me, securing me tighter in his arms as he walked us out of the room.

"Tsk tsk," he chided playfully, tracing his nose along mine as we left the room, "She's an esteemed physicist, dating the fastest man alive, and the best she can come up with is using his powers to search the globe for worthwhile ice cream..."

"Well, you can travel through space and time," I stated, kissing him again, "Crossing time zones shouldn't be any problem for you. And you _did_ say you wanted a nice romantic date with me..."

He smiled and leaned forward, ready to run, and I wrapped my arms tighter around him, holding his shoulders.

"Let's go find us some ice cream, then," he murmured, before he winked at me again and charged into his speed, sprinting out of STAR Labs.

Adrenaline and excitement filled every cell of my body as we shot out into the night.

Barry released one hand to cup my cheek and tilt my jaw forward, kissing me as we raced through the countryside, nothing but soft, cool wind whipping around us, and the stars glittering over our heads in the dark nighttime sky.

###

I woke up screaming, icy sweat washing down my back.

Barry jolted awake beside me and shot straight up, switched the bedside lamp on before immediately yanking me into his arms, lacing kisses into my forehead, running one hand through my sweaty hair.

"Hey - hey, it's okay," he cajoled, as I panted, shivering against him, "It was just a nightmare, Artemis. It's okay. You're with me."

I let out a shaky breath and pressed my eyes shut, trying to repress my tears. Instead, a sob broke in my throat and I shuddered, trying to blot out the horrifying images that had stamped themselves into my mind.

Barry pulled me into his lap and tucked my head under his chin, tightly locking my trembling body in his arms. His warm hands rubbed my goosebumped arms.

"Now, I know San Francisco is a pretty creepy place, but was our date last night _that_ bad?" He joked lovingly, moving one hand over to stroke my back through my shirt.

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, my voice cracking involuntarily, "I didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's alright," he replied warmly, though I knew I scared him. He laid back down, his arms still folded around me as he brought me back down with him. "Do you want to tell me what you saw?"

I gulped and closed my arms around his torso, as the memories came back.

There was a dark, unlit hallway.

The boom of thunder and the crackle of lightning, and I was suddenly looking at a tall man, dressed into a horrifying yellow and black speed suit, eyes burning like harsh red suns, the cruel glint of an evil, victorious smile.

 _What did you do?_ my father's voice called out from somewhere, and only then did I notice that the Reverse Flash's gloves were marred with fresh crimson blood.

 _Artemis - run!_ Mama shouted, though she too couldn't be seen.

Knife appearing in his other hand, the demon before me stepped forward, laughing coldly, and my feet were frozen in the ground, each foot as heavy as a boulder.

Cisco's invisible voice chimed in. So did Caitlin's, and Barry's, and Wells's.

You get the idea...

"A glimpse of hell," I mumbled weakly, my voice muffled as I buried my face against Barry's shirt, "The Reverse Flash killed everyone. I couldn't do anything about it."

Barry sighed and pressed a kiss into my hairline. "I think I know how you feel," he murmured, burrowing us both under the warm blanket.

"You do?" I asked quizzically.

"Yeah... That alternate timeline I traveled back from, remember?"

"We all died?" I inquired, fear creeping under my skin, "The Reverse Flash showed up?"

Barry propped himself up on one elbow, and thought carefully before responding. "The Reverse Flash hadn't appeared, no... But Mark Mardon, the metahuman you cured today? Him and that other guy, Garzonas, had kidnapped Joe, and you went off to go find him alone-"

"I went _alone?"_

"Err... Yeah," Barry replied, reluctance lacing each word, "You did."

"Why would I be dumb enough to go after the Weather Wizard and a hardened rapist unaided?" I asked, unsure of what to think of myself.

Barry let out a low whistle, before he answered me. "Well, you and I sort of broke up, and you were convinced you could find them without me, and... I did try to dissuade you, but you made it clear I wasn't wanted. You said we didn't need each other."

"That's bullshit," I retorted, automatically hugging him, "That would never have happened. I would never say anything like that."

He chuckled lightly and shook his head no, one arm winding around me tightly. "Sadly, it did happen. Like I said, Wells was involved somehow. All I know is that you left me and disappeared, and when I found you, you were with Dr. Wells, and you absolutely hated me."

I let that sink in, before I frowned and rose to softly kiss his mouth. He slung an arm over my shoulders, fervently returning the gesture.

"Well, I think I owe you an apology for hurting you like that," I answered sullenly, "I swear nobody could push you away from me. And - and I _do_ need you. I don't know what would happen to me if you left my life. I'm sorry for what I put you through."

Barry smiled and stroked my hair. "You realize you're apologizing for something that'll never happened, right? I reverted the timeline. None of that happened, and none of it will."

I broke into a grin and kissed him again. "Turning back time... That sounds so surreal. I still can't process that."

"Neither can I," he replied, placing my head against the crook of his neck, "I like this new timeline, and I really am enjoying the fact that we won't break up."

"Stop saying the 'b' word, Barry," I scolded, gently slapping him.

"You watch your tone," he murmured back with playful scorn, narrowing his eyes before he shifted so he was on top of me, cupping my face in both hands and kissing me ardently.

I held him in an embrace when he finally broke his lips away from mine, and he curled up in my arms, resting his head against my chest.

"So, just to be on the safe side, remind me why we broke up?" I inquired, my fingers playing with his hair.

"I'd rather not," Barry grumbled, looking away.

"Tell me."

"No."

"Barry..."

"No."

"How bad could it possibly be?"

"Bad enough to convince you to leave me."

"So what was it?"

"I'm not going to tell you. So stop asking."

I scowled as I grabbed his face and forced him to look at me. "I'm not going anywhere."

"Then you don't need to know anyway," he assured.

"Look. In this supposed alternate timeline, I willingly gave up the one thing I love," I stated sternly, "I want to know _why_ that happened. What could possibly have happened between us that so thoroughly induced me into believing I didn't need you?"

He took a deep breath, and I released him. A moment of silence passed before he unfroze and intertwined his hand through one of mine. "You know how we've been arguing a bit lately?"

Guilt tunneled itself in my heart.

Barry hadn't been making things easy for me in the past few weeks or so.

It wasn't on purpose, and it didn't occur often, but it... just sort of happened.

I was just as responsible as he was, I reminded myself.

"What about it?" I replied, though I had a feeling I knew.

"Well, it... kind of snowballed out of control," he answered, "And I may or may not have taken my anger out on you at one point, after a mission gone wrong."

"Oh, see, that's perfect," I responded, slapping him again a little harder.

"Ow-"

"The solution to that is crystal clear," I stated, gently pulling on one of his ears, "You _don't_ argue with me, and you think twice before speaking when you're angry. Now repeat after me."

"After me," he teased, removing my hand from the side of his face to bring to his mouth, kissing my fingertips.

"I, Barry Allen," I ordered.

"I, Barry Allen..."

"Will hereby swear to always listen to my girlfriend, because she is always right."

I saw a smile glint on Barry's face as he rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say, Artemis."

"I will not argue with her," I continued, "Because there is no need to, because, as stated earlier, she is always inherently right."

"Alright, that one's not so bad..." Barry answered.

"Barry, I'm trying to be serious," I replied, unable to repress a smile.

"I can tell," he conceded with a playful nod.

I pulled him in to kiss his forehead. "Look, let's just... be careful, and try not to let things crash and burn between us, even if we're being rough around the edges," I requested softly, "We have a lot of potential for this to be long-term, and I truly do love you..."

"I love you too," he murmured, delicately brushing his lips over mine.

"And hey, good luck finding another girlfriend who'll buy you a BMW for Christmas," I reminded him jokingly when he pulled away, before I turned serious again, "So... who died in the other timeline, then?"

"I just kissed you, and the first thing that pops into your mind is murder?"

I crossed my arms, unimpressed.

"You do know it's 5 in the morning, right?" he protested, "And that you woke me up with bloody screams that terrified the living soul out of me, and now you're forcing me to recount all this other alarmingly nightmarish stuff I just went through barely hours ago?"

I blinked at Barry's serious expression.

He sighed, and plopped down on his back, covering his face with both hands. "Cisco, Wells and Caitlin."

Sweat bloomed across the edges of my hairline when I heard him say those names.

"Oh my god," I stammered, feeling the color drain from my face, "Did - did you find them?"

"No, I didn't," he responded, shaking his head, "A young boy came to me, and told me."

"A boy came to you and told you your friends were dead, and you believed him?"

"A teenager, actually. He looked about 17 or 18," Barry described, "He knew I was the Flash, and told me who he was wasn't important. It turned out he was a speedster too. He was the one who helped me time-travel so I could fix everything..."

"A young speedster? Who knew you were the Flash and helped you time-travel?" I challenged, frowning, "How does that make him unimportant? There - there are other speedsters out there? What if he knows about the Reverse Flash?"

"I - I'm sorry," Barry stated sadly, "I meant to ask him questions, but he disappeared when I crashed into your lab. I haven't seen him since."

"Well, that's okay, I guess," I replied uncertainly, before I forced myself to relax and looped my arm through his, dropping a kiss onto his shoulder, "As long as you're safe, and we're all safe..."

"I didn't even get to thank him," Barry amazed, moving his arm to fold it over me, "Another speedster. God, I can't even wrap my head around that. The Reverse Flash and I aren't alone. There _are_ others like us."

I gulped.

"You okay?" Barry asked kindly.

"Yeah, I am," I stated expressionlessly, before I closed my eyes and sighed, "No, I'm not."

"What's wrong?" He questioned, stroking my cheek.

I cleared my throat before facing him, nervous. "You - you know how you said you couldn't believe there were other speedsters like you?"

"Yeah?"

"Well... you're sleeping with one now."

Barry paused, and stayed quiet for an entire second, trying to figure me out in this new light.

"Artemis... what?" Barry asked softly.

I nervously sat up straight and took a deep breath, and confessed everything Caitlin had told me. He listened, watching me speak in disbelief, and soon sat up and held me when involuntary tears sprang into my eyes, when I told Barry about the Reverse Flash killing my parents because of me so he could take away my speed.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier," I declared, wiping my eyes with the side of my hand, "It was a lot to take in at the moment, and I didn't know how you'd react, and-"

"Artemis, it's fine," he assured, hugging me, "It's... It's kind of scary to believe, but it's okay."

"Can - can we not talk about it?" I asked, "I'm honestly trying to keep it as far away from my mind as possible. It's not a reality I want to accept."

"That's okay," Barry said, kissing my hair as we lay back down, "Although I can't help but imagine Cisco's reaction to finding that out. He'd probably be like 'You _both_ are speedsters? This is a match made in heaven! You guys were meant to be!'"

I smiled, and laced my fingers through his. Had to hand it to him for trying to keep me upbeat about it.

"And Dr. Wells would just glare at us, and find reasons to blame it on you, and throw more shade at us," I retorted, before growing angry, "'He's clearly not the right man for you' - what would _he_ know?"

"Yeah," Barry mumbled, "Let's... not tell Wells about this. I'm finding it difficult to trust him after what he said about letting those people die after time-traveling, anyway."

"Barry?" I asked.

"Mmm?"

"Do you honestly think Wells is working with the Reverse Flash?"

Barry paused before he spoke. "Why would you say that?"

"Because something's not right here, and it all points back to him. Joe's accused him of being involved in the deaths of our parents several times. He's been mentoring you as the Flash, and he has me as his right hand at STAR Labs. And he knows a little too much about super speed, if you ask me. And he's always pushed me harder and guided me forward with my science. Barry, we've spoken about this before. I - I'm starting to think Wells _is_ the Reverse Flash's accomplice, or something along those lines. He has to be."

Barry took a deep breath, and gently caressed my cheek with the back of his finger. "Artemis, I think it's a little too early in the morning to be dropping this many bombs on me. Let's get some rest while we still can."

I apologized and snuggled up against him, before I noticed the clock on the wall and let out a frustrated sigh. "It's already a quarter til six. Our alarms are going to start ringing in less than twenty minutes. There's no point in sleeping."

Barry peeked one eye open, before he covered his face with the pillow. "Fantastic," He grumbled, his voice muffled.

"Whose genius idea was it for us to have to wake up this early in the morning anyway?" I muttered, turning to lie face down.

"It was America's genius idea," Barry replied, tired, "We spend the first two decades of our lives at school, behind a desk, to get an education, then we spend the rest of our lives at work, behind a desk, making money, and then our kids do the same. We're living the all-wonderful American Dream here."

"Screw the American Dream," I muttered, stubbornly turning onto my stomach and yanking the blanket over my head, "I'm sleeping in."

"Damn right," Barry mumbled, joining me and throwing his arms back over me.

"And I'm _never_ going back to work ever again," I asserted.

"Well, 'never' might be a little too absurd, but we'll manage fine on a single income, I guess..."

"I'm going to take everything I can carry with me, stuff it in my car, and race off and never return," I contended.

"Artemis, that's... a bit extreme, isn't it?" Barry asked quietly.

"And you're coming with me," I ordered.

"I am?"

"Yeah. We're gonna ditch this stupid city, and we'll go live on a farm, or something, out in the Mid-West, where _nobody_ will disturb us."

"A _farm?!"_ Barry protested, "What's the Flash supposed to do on a farm?"

"Cisco can come with us," I continued, "He'll help us rig up some fun tech stuff so we don't get bored. And we'll bring Caitlin with us too. And Joe. And we can break your dad out of Iron Heights, and he can live with us as well."

"Umm... Cisco, Caitlin and Joe all hate the wilderness, and we'll be national fugitives for breaking someone out of prison, but do continue."

"And Iris and Eddie can come too," I suggested.

Barry hesitated. "We... we don't need to bring Iris and Eddie with us."

"And we'll live lives of peace and simplicity, and we can get married and have six kids, and it'll be perfect."

"Do you want lives of peace and simplicity?" Barry asked rhetorically, taking my hands in his, "Or do you want six kids? Because those two things do _not_ go hand in hand."

"I guess we'll have to go with peace and simplicity," I replied absentmindedly, playing with his fingers, "Because, as Cisco so kindly reminded us, the kids aren't happening."

Barry's mouth split into a sad smile, and he pulled my body close against his as he laced kisses into my cheek.

"I swear to god I will love you until the end of time, if you'll do the same," Barry murmured.

I smiled and leaned in, delicately kissing him.

"Deal."

* * *

 **[Barry's POV]**

A generous amount of time was spent in bed sweetly kissing, hugging, cuddling and inciting beautiful, shy smiles from my endearing girlfriend, before our beefhead chief of police, Captain David Singh, called and hastily urged for me to come to Iron Heights to investigate a scene of escape.

Artemis, still wound tightly in my embrace, was the one who had answered, and chastely tried to tell Singh that I had caught a stomach virus and that I needed to stay at home so she could after me, to which Singh huffed, irritated, and sternly ordered, _(Artemis, honey, this really isn't the time for me to be calling your bluff. Tell him to get his lazy butt over here pronto, because we might be looking at a Level 175.)_

"A Level 175? Tsk tsk, David, did you just disclose private case details to a dissociated civilian?" Artemis replied sweetly, "Won't you get your badge revoked if you-"

I snatched the phone from her before she could finish her statements, and narrowed my eyes at her, covering her mouth. "I'll be right over, sir."

 _(Stomach virus my ass, Allen)_ David scorned, _(You're gonna wanna get over here quick, or I'll make sure you return home actually in need of going to the doctor.)_

I hung up and faked a frown at Artemis, ruffling her hair and dropping a kiss on her head before untangling myself from her. "Thanks for getting me in trouble."

"One of these days, I'm going to sue him for the way he talks to you," she mumbled, getting out of bed and following after me.

"Hey, where are you going?" I murmured, watching her turn to leave the room, "You said you were taking the day off. You should relax..."

She shrugged coolly. "Your super speed is no excuse for my laziness. I'm gonna go get your breakfast ready."

I rolled my eyes, and in the span of a heartbeat, I rushed the two of us downstairs, in the kitchen. She gawked at the sight of me, smiling as I cracked my knuckles, completely dressed and ready for work, before she gasped as she noticed that I had seated her at the table, where two plates of spinach n' cheese omelettes, toast, and waffles had been prepared, along with two glasses of refreshing, ice-cold OJ.

"You seriously... I have no words," she stammered, as I easily slid into the chair next to hers.

I beamed as I playfully pinched her cheek. "I told you. You're relaxing today."

Her face reddened and she swatted my hand away, before we dug in. Being the mood killer that I am, I had my plate cleared before she even swallowed her third bite (at human speed, mind you), and she protested as I got up and donned my coat, swiping my car keys off of their hook.

"At least let me walk you out!" She exhorted. I watched as she scrambled away from the table and arrived by my side, knowingly roping both arm through one of mine before we walked out the door together.

I couldn't resist a wistful grin at her as we strolled over to our driveway, where we would reluctantly part ways.

She gave me one last embrace, before she broke into a small frown, stopping to run her fingers through my hair, combing it down.

"You little _dork_ ," she murmured, working her lithe fingers over my collar to fix it, before gently tightening and perfecting my tie, "There. All better."

I was smiling like an idiot by then, and took her hand in mine.

Her uncombed bedhead made it look as if she'd been electrified, and her skin was chalky, the way it was when she was tired or stressed, and she still hadn't changed out of the old black t-shirt and the plaid pajamas she had worn to bed.

She was the most wonderful human being in the world, and she was mine again.

Time travel _definitely_ had its perks.

She yawned and reached her free hand up to rub something out of the inner corner of her eye, and I leaned in to close the distance between us with a soft kiss.

"We should probably just get married," I murmured stupidly, taking her in my arms for a hug.

She surprised me with a carefree laugh. "I'm more than certain 86% of the neighborhood thinks we already are."

"What happened to the remaining 14%?" I asked, watching her extend an arm to open the car door for me.

"We haven't annoyed them enough," she remarked with a coy wink, and I beamed and proudly kissed her again before finally getting into my car.

###

I figured I'd stop by Jitters and pick up a few lattes for Singh, Briggs, Joe, and the other guys to compensate for being late, and was waiting at the counter for the barista to finish up my order.

"Barry! Hey!" Iris bubbled, clearly dressed for work in a blazer, jeans and heels, smiling brightly at me as the entrance bell jingled behind her.

"Iris... Hi..." I answered awkwardly, shuddering as memories of her confession in the alternate timeline resurfaced.

 _I can't leave you. Ever since that night, when you told me how you felt about me, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. At first, I was really mad. And then I realized, the reason I couldn't stop thinking about you was because I didn't want to..._

We... probably needed to talk about that, I realized. I grabbed my drinks from the counter, surprised Iris by sweeping her by the arm, and sat her down at a table for two, clearly astonishing her. "Barry," she stammered, "What on earth-"

"Iris, do you like me?" I asked seriously.

She widened her eyes, and paled. " _Excuse_ me, Barry?"

"Because I have good reason to believe you do, Iris," I added, unsure of how else to confront her. Hey, _she_ said it, not me...

Her expression soon morphed into a surprised scowl, and she pulled her hand away from mine. "Barry, I _don't,"_ she asserted, "What even...?"

"No, ever since what I told you, on Christmas, you haven't been able to stop thinking about me. I know you haven't-"

"What?!" she answered sharply, "How?!"

"I just - I just know, Iris," I replied, blurting out words before I could stop them, "And - and I get the feeling that you think we shouldn't be dating Artemis and Eddie, and I want you to know that-"

"Barry, what the actual hell are you talking about?" She demanded, worried.

"Iris, I know you have these feelings for me," I urged, "And I need for you to know that I can't return them, no matter how you feel about me, and that I won't leave Artemis, and you shouldn't leave Eddie."

Her mouth hung open, and she tipped her head forward in disbelief.

"Iris, I'm really sorry," I maintained, "But I don't want there to be any confusion between us."

"Where on earth are you getting all of this nonsense?" She nearly yelled, gathering her things, "Me, leave Eddie? For you? Barry, I'm sorry that you had unrequited feelings for me, but... but you told me you were happy with Artemis, and now you're accusing me of wanting to _be_ with you?"

I could feel heat flush over my face. "Iris, no, it's not like that," I stammered, but she raised her arm, her irritated confusion finally flaring as she made an annoyed sound and whipped her hand forward across my face, leaving behind a slinging pain in my cheek.

I opened my mouth, my hand covering the skin she had hit, and nearly laughed out loud in bewilderment.

For the first time in our lives, Iris just slapped me, and she was watching me worriedly now, unsure if she should apologize or not.

People were staring.

"You hate me..." I murmured, watching her in awe.

"I - I don't hate you," she assured, voice heavy with a fearful concern, clutching her hand, "You're just scaring me, and I just think you've lost it-"

"I've lost it!" I repeated proudly, before taking her into a thankful squeezing hug, "That means you don't like me! This is great - this is _great!_ Thank you, Iris!"

I collected the coffees, grinning, and nearly stumbled into the doorway as I continued to thank and say goodbye to Iris, who was frozen in place, watching me dumbfounded, before I panicked and nearly dropped the drinks at the sight of my car being towed away from the No Parking Zone.

###

"Allen, what's your excuse this time?" Singh muttered, when I finally snuck into the crime scene at Iron Heights with my speed, "The stomach flu one won't really cut it. Did you fall down the stairs and hurt your knee? Was there a long line of ducklings crossing the road again?"

"My car got towed," I answered timidly, handing him a cold latte, adding to his confusion and annoyance before I casually walked over to the crime scene.

"Two inmates have been killed mysteriously," Briggs described, frowning as I passed him his stale coffee, before getting down on one knee to study the damage.

"So who escaped?" I murmured, analyzing the burn marks along the floor and wall.

"Dude named James Jesse," Joe answered, automatically tossing his drink into a trash can, "Back in the day, he was a major circus acrobat before he turned into con man. Called himself the Trickster."

"He's more or less some low-priced Joker," someone else chimed in.

"Explosion," I deduced, rising as I placed samples of the residue in my kit, "Whoever got him out of here did so with a salted-cobalt based explosives. I'll run some samples soon enough."

" _Allen_ ," Eddie snapped, before he had suddenly clubbed his fist hard into my jaw, forcing me to stagger backwards.

Pain jolted in my teeth and gums, the taste of blood pooling onto my tongue.

"Eddie!" Joe barked, as he and Briggs both grabbed him and held him back.

"Hey! Whatever beef you two have, take it outside!" Singh ordered, jogginh over to us.

"You're seriously fucked up, Barry," Eddie answered icily, "Telling Iris to think I'm not the right man for her? And that it should be _you?!"_

"What the hell is going on here?" Briggs interjected, drawing concerned glances between the both of us, someone handing me a napkin for my face.

"Eddie... what?" I mumbled, disoriented as I wiped away blood.

"Stay away from her," Eddie muttered, glaring murderously at me, "You'll be dead before you can even look at her again."

"Eddie, that's not what I had said," I answered, dejection settling through me.

"You know what the worst part is, Allen?" He continued, stepping away from Joe and Briggs, "I thought you and I were cool."

Joe glowered at me, silently demanding an explanation.

I shrugged, at a loss for words.

In winning back the lives of my loved ones, I had lost two good friends.

Maybe Wells was right about the deviations...

###

Later that afternoon, Caitlin called me over to Jitters, and I tensed at the sight of Eddie, standing with her and Iris, before he turned and sauntered over to me.

"Eddie," I stuttered, holding my hands up in surrender, "I'm incredibly-"

"I am _so_ sorry, pal," Eddie announced, hugging me.

I widened my eyes, surprised, and Eddie pulled away to hold me at arm's length, smiling. "It's not like me to hit anyone. I don't know what came over me."

"Uhh, thanks?" I replied, bewildered, "It's okay?"

Iris walked over, and smiled as she squeezed my wrist reassuringly. "You poor thing," she gushed, "I had no idea."

"Is that right?" I mumbled, before facing Caitlin, "Umm, what exactly did they have no idea about?"

"I was just explaining to Eddie and Iris your lightning psychosis," she answered with a hopeful smile.

"My what now?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Your lightning psychosis?" she repeated knowingly, "How your recent odd behavior is a part of your delayed side effects from being stuck by lightning? You know. Your mood swings, sudden outbursts of affection, lapses in judgment?"

"He told me he just _knew_ these things about me, liking him," Iris stated, concerned.

"We're just glad you're getting help," Eddie assured, patting my shoulder.

"It's a very uncommon neurological phenomena," Caitlin promised, "We're only beginning to research it. So if Barry spends a lot of time at STAR Labs, I can assure you it's not just so he can be with his girlfriend."

"So, we're good?" I asked Iris and Eddie, relief settling over me.

"We're good," Eddie affirmed.

"Take care of yourself, Barry," Iris urged.

The entrance bell behind us jingled, and Cisco walked in with Artemis.

"Guess who finally shows up," Cisco announced, waving both hands towards Artemis, who had a steely look of murder in her eyes.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't my favorite no-show from work," Caitlin greeted, grinning, before Artemis's scowl had her tensing.

"What's wrong?" I tried asking, but she ignored me and crossed her arms at Eddie.

"Artemis! Hey! How are you?" Eddie inquired.

Her glare intensified.

"Did... Did I do something wrong?" Eddie asked nervously, and before we could stop her, Artemis seized Eddie forward by the collar of his shirt and powerfully shot her small fist into his face, surprising us all.

Iris shrieked and tried to pull him away, but Artemis held him by the collar, staring him down despite her shorter height.

"Artemis, what the hell!" Iris demanded, as the beginnings of a small bruise began blotching Eddie's face.

"What's the matter?" Artemis answered coldly, pushing her glasses higher up on her nose, narrowing her eyes at the two of them, "Is it not fun being given a taste of your own medicine?"

"Alright, thank you, but that's enough," I interjected, pulling her back. She protested, unable to maneuver out of my arms, and I covered her mouth with my hand as she began cursing.

Cisco grinned, coolly hooking his elbow over her shoulder.

"You're both crazy!" Eddie concluded, exasperated as he rubbed his face.

"What's _her_ deal?" Iris inquired, frowning at Caitlin, "Does she have some kind of psychosis too, or something?"

"Artemis just..." Caitlin began.

"It's Overprotective Girlfriend Syndrome," Cisco completed for her, patting Artemis's shoulder, "You mess with Barry, you ask for death."

Eddie frowned, and Artemis jerked one of her hands free to yank my hand off of her mouth. "You try something stupid like that again, and I'll smash a lead pipe in your face, Thawne-"

"What Artemis means to say is that she's had a really nice time seeing you both today, and that she needs to go now," I stated quickly, shielding her mouth again and half-dragging/half picking her up and forcing her to leave Jitters with me.

"We'll see you two later," Caitlin chirped politely, following after me.

"Get yourself an ice pack for that, buddy," Cisco advised, before he too came with us.

Artemis tore out of my arms, huffed, and took my hand as we turned down the sidewalk, Caitlin and Cisco joining on either side of us.

"So... That was cute," Cisco announced, slipping his hands into his pockets, grinning at me.

"She punched a cop in the face," I answered, "Don't encourage it. She can't just go around picking fights with anybody because of me."

"A cop punched _you_ in the face," Caitlin cut in wittily, proudly placing her arm over Artemis's shoulder, "Eddie should be the one watching who he picks fights with."

Artemis winked at me, and I rolled my eyes, though I couldn't resist smiling at her.

"Okay, no," I argued in spite of myself, " _I'm_ the superhero here. I should be the protective one. My girlfriend shouldn't have to be the one picking up after me, and I seriously don't want another loved one behind bars."

"Another loved one serving a life sentence?" Cisco asked coyly, as we all walked down the sidewalk.

"Yes," I replied.

"So, how _is_ your dad?" Artemis inquired, worry lacing itself in each word, "Did you get a chance to see him today? While you were at Iron Heights?"

"More importantly, did you figure out a way to break him out of prison?" Caitlin questioned with a bashful smile, "I mean, let's be realistic here. The four of us aren't running away together to live in the middle of nowhere without him."

"Caitlin!" I protested, unable to hold back a smile, before I faced Artemis, "You told them about your troublesome little plan?"

"Well, yeah," she replied, shrugging casually, "Why wouldn't I? We're a team, aren't we? If we do stupid things, we do them together."

"Time to orchestrate a prison break, eh, Van Kleiss?" Cisco teased, as the four of us turned to cross the street, "I'm sure you'll think of something that'll dazzle us all."

"Artemis, please tell me you're not serious," I joked, shaking my head.

"Sunshine, you worry too much," Artemis conceded, throwing a smirk over her shoulder as her and Caitlin passed us, "What could go wrong?"

###

Turns out Artemis didn't need to break my father out of prison, because he had already been taken as a hostage by the James Jesse to use as leverage. We learned that Jesse had been freed by a man named Axel Walker, posing as his fanboy protege, later revealed to be Jesse's son, and with both Tricksters on the loose, Central City had gone for a pretty wild ride.

There were bombs all over the city.

In homes, at recreational parks, in public business buildings, and with a frantic adrenaline coursing through my veins, I had managed to defuse and deactivate them, with the help of Caitlin, Cisco and Artemis, before anyone could get hurt.

Both father and son released a public vlog, broadcasting that they had hidden a nuclear bomb - the Mona Lisa - somewhere in the city, and it was set to go off. We still had no idea where the bomb was, or where the Tricksters were hiding my father.

Wells, of course, decided to help without asking, and this only unnerved me more, because I had lost a significant amount of trust in him, and we still couldn't find word about my father, no matter how hard we were looking, and more and more violent pranks continuously popped up throughout the city.

And I was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Artemis was worried as she worked with Wells to devise an algorithm that could help trace where my father was hidden, and Joe tried to help Cisco and Caitlin as they worked to find out where the Mona Lisa was, but they were all baffled. There was no thermal or chemical signature that huge being given off from anywhere in the city, meaning the bomb couldn't be found.

Fear and stress weighed me down like a bowling ball inside my chest, and I went down to the particle accelerator, and sat down, unsure of what else to do.

Artemis and Joe both noticed, and knowing better than to leave me alone to sulk, they followed me.

"Barry, we'll find him," Artemis promised solemnly, putting her hand over mine as she sat beside me.

"Do you think they killed him?" I asked quietly.

Fear flashed in her eyes, before she forced herself to stay strong, and steeled herself. "No, Barry, of course not," she assured, putting her hand on my shoulder, "Your father _isn't_ dead."

"Jesse only took your pop to use as leverage," Joe cajoled, "He may be crazy, but he's not stupid. And everyone upstairs is working to find him, Bar. Henry'll be safe."

"So now I'm just supposed to leave my father's fate in the hands of a man who may be involved in the murder of my mother?" I retorted, shaking my head, "Guys, I - I can't do this."

"Yes, you can," Joe urged kindly, sitting down beside me.

Artemis squeezed my hand reassuringly. "You think I _want_ Wells anywhere near you?" She asked, concern overtaking her tone, before she shook her head, "Barry, I _don't._ If he is who we think he is, then that means _my_ father is also dead because of him, and I would rather shoot Wells in the face myself than let him make you go through that kind of pain. But... until we know more, and find out what happened for certain, there's nothing we can do. We need your father back, and Wells is helping us, and that's the only thing that's important right now."

Anxiety and doubt flared in my chest as I took in what she said, and I sighed before facing her again. "It just doesn't make any sense. Why would he go out of his way to help and be supportive of us if he's against us? Nothing about him makes sense. _None_ of this makes sense."

"Barry, he's not supportive of us at all," Artemis murmured, gently placing her hand on my knee, "Need I remind you how he feels about our relationship?"

"Listen, I spent a tenth as much time with him as you kids," Joe comforted, "And he almost had me fooled."

"Almost," I mumbled.

"Look, whatever else he is, he is Harrison Wells," Joe coaxed, "You love science. He is science. It's like you made friends with Einstein, or something... No offense, Artemis."

"None taken."

"You're saying I wanted to be tricked," I concluded, "That I let him do this to me."

"No, I'm saying you always want to be the person who sees the best in people," Joe responded warmly, "I've been a cop for 25 years. All I can see is the flaws, the lies, the dark thoughts people try to hide. I _wish_ I could see others in the same light that you do. As fast as you are, Barry, that is your real strength. Don't let Wells take it away from you. It's like Artemis said. We don't know why he's helping us. All that matters is that he is."

Artemis squeezed my hand in consolation, and a sob escaped my throat as I registered what Joe said.

All this time, I had been naive enough to trust someone without stopping to speculate over his intentions.

"I just... I can't lose my dad, guys," I replied in a tremulous voice, tears burning out of my eyes.

"Bar, come on," Joe cajoled, placing an arm over my shoulders, "Come on, come on."

Artemis moved to sit in front of me, and cupped my face with both hands, her thumbs gently brushing tears from my cheekbones.

"Barry, look at me," she ordered softly, a promising determination storming in her eyes, her voice warm and full of concern, " _Nothing_ is going to happen to your father. We simply won't allow it. _I_ simply won't allow it. I'm going to do everything in my power to find Henry, wherever he may be, and I promise you that I personally will not rest until you have him back, safe and sound. It'll be okay."

"H-how can you be so sure?" I murmured, my voice quivering against erratic sobs, "After everything that's happened to my mother, and to your parents, how do you know nothing is going to happen to my father too?"

Artemis shook her head, and solemnly kissed my forehead before winding me tightly in her arms. "Barry, we lost them when we were kids. Helpless, scared kids. But we're adults now, and we know what we're up against. We're smart, and we have our strengths, and Caitlin, Cisco, Joe and I are here for you. Wells may be working with a speedster, but so are we. Your father is not going to die."

I couldn't suppress my full-fledged crying as she held me, and Artemis and Joe were both comforting me and stayed with me as I finally broke down, before she pulled me up to my feet, grazed my tears away, and affectionately demanded that I pull myself together, Joe chiming in, before the two of them led me back up to the Cortex.

"Nice work back there, kid," I heard Joe murmur to her when we were in the hallway.

"You weren't too bad yourself, Detective," she remarked with a wink, before I did a 180 and caught them both in a thankful embrace, surprising them, before they eased and hugged me back.

"What would I do without you two?" I mumbled.

"Let's hope you don't have to find out," Joe affirmed, ruffling my hair, as Artemis took me by the hand and brought me back to her lab room, where Cisco was running technical analyses.

###

 _(Barry, do you see any walls nearby?)_ Dr. Wells asked calmly, in my comms.

"What?!" I yelled back, charging through the city, weaving between cars and pedestrians, with a kinetic bomb strapped tightly to my wrist.

Should I run below 600 mph, the speedometer inside would set off a deadly explosion.

The surge of adrenaline that I was depending on was slowly - and consistently - depleting, and as my breath wavered and a demanding ache ebbed in my calves, I knew I couldn't keep running for much longer.

In the end, it was a bomb that was destined to "take out the Flash," as Axel Walker had teased, and with Jesse's help, he had an entire hall of people poisoned, set to die in under an hour.

Iris was one of those people.

 _(You need to run into a wall to get rid of the bomb.)_

 _(Dr. Wells, are you insane?!)_ Cisco protested, _(There's a whole list of reasons why that's not going to work!)_

 _(Barry, stay with us!)_ Caitlin urged, _(We'll figure something out!)_

"Alright, well, I can't run forever!"

 _(There's got to be a way to get that thing off of him without damaging it!_ ) Cisco inquired.

 _(I've got it!)_ Artemis suddenly declared.

 _(You've got what?!)_ someone asked. _  
_

 _(A solution. I was fixing together a uniquely powered laser beam that'll cut through metal and plastic,) Artemis answered, (I know enough about the inner components and workings of a bomb to be able to get it off of you, Barry.)_

"I'm all ears," I answered, careening wildly through a park, friction igniting the grass in my wake.

 _(He's running at speeds comparable to that of a fighter jet,)_ Caitlin described worriedly _, (Artemis, how are you going to get that off of him?)_

 _(Easy. He's going to come get me. I'll manually work it off of his wrist as he runs.)_

My stomach lurched from disbelief at her suggestion, and Wells, Cisco and Caitlin began ensuing their protests.

 _(Artemis, that's - that's suicide!_ ) Cisco stammered, _(You're asking a man who weighs almost 200 lbs to run into you at 648 miles per hour! He'll hit you with more force than a bullet train in just picking you up, mid-run!)_

 _(Not to mention that you'll break every bone in your body from whiplash alone,)_ Caitlin added worriedly. _  
_

 _(What other choice does he have?)_ Artemis countered, _(I'm not going to sit back and watch him tire himself out when I have a solution at hand. Sunshine, you coming, or what?)_

"Artemis, no, this won't end well," I argued, huffing to breathe as I pushed through the night, "I can't let you get hurt."

 _(I am not going to get hurt-)_

 _(Artemis, listen to me,)_ Wells interrupted, his voice cold and fearful, _(You don't have the answer to every problem. Barry will get through without you. He'll have to. You are not putting yourself in that kind of situation, not on my watch.)_

 _(You don't have that kind of say in this matter,)_ Artemis refused easily, _(Barry, this is a matter of life or death, and I know what to do. I'm your only option at this point. You need to trust me.)_

 _(Artemis,)_ Wells warned _, (D on't-)_

"Are you sure about this?" I panted.

 _(Please tell me you didn't just ask me that,)_ she assured, _(I'll be in the STAR Labs parking lot in about ten seconds or so. I expect you to be there.)_

I tensed.

I wasn't sure what she was going to do, and I didn't know what I was supposed to expect as I dashed back to the other side of town.

What kind of tools would she bring? How would she work them while I ran at whirlwind speeds?

Would the friction kill her?

How would I even pick her up at this speed without snapping her body in half?

Leave her, I thought reluctantly.

Turn around.

She couldn't get involved without getting hurt.

 _(Barry, she won't survive,)_ Wells warned, _(Don't listen to her. Her plan is rushed, and stupid. You'll kill her.)_

 _(On a side note, Artemis has already left the Cortex, and has just texted me saying you'll most certainly die, and she'll make sure we do too if we try to talk you out of this...)_ Cisco announced.

 _(Cisco...)_ Wells growled.

 _(Barry, you need to maintain a constant velocity when you get her. Any acceleration in the moment of impact could highly increase the chance of death,)_ Caitlin added, _(Try to lean forward a bit so your angling minimizes potential injuries, and watch her head, Please please please watch her head, and make sure her arms aren't flailing about or she'll suffer from severe muscle and tendon damage, and godspeed.)_

 _(Let us know how it goes, I guess?)_ Cisco answered easily.

 _(Barry, if anything happens to my Artemis, anything so much as a single scratch, you had best wish that bomb kills you.)_ Wells muttered.

"To _your_ Artemis?!" I repeated in bewilderment, as I crossed the bay and finally saw Artemis in my field of vision.

I had no idea what she wanted to do.

I had no idea what I was going to do.

So I followed Caitlin's orders and tried my best to pick Artemis up as safely as possible without stopping, leaning forward so I could easily scoop her up.

Instead I hit her like a brick wall.

My heart stuttered in my chest and I nearly stopped running when I realized she wasn't moving, my arms hooked under her back and knees, her head against my chest.

My mind went completely blank, and I was about to panic, but then she groaned and struggled to move in the face of the wind, her hair easily becoming undone as I surged on.

"Thank god you're alive!" I shouted at her, the wind drowning out my words.

She pulled her hand away from her face, and I widened my eyes at the sight of blood pouring down from a wound at the corner of her temple, where my shoulder had hit her.

"Right back at you," she muttered, scowling as she roped both arms around my neck, and very precariously - yet _skillfully_ \- shifted her weight so she was sitting up somewhat straighter.

"What are you doing?" I queried, trying to hold onto her tightly, running suddenly becoming a challenge with my slightly askew balance.

"Bomb, remember?" She yelled, hastening to wrap her legs around my waist, facing me, "Which wrist is it on?"

"My left!" I answered, holding onto her for (her) dear life as I jumped over a car, speeding through the traffic.

"Okay, so hold onto me with your right arm, give me your other wrist, and focus on running," she ordered, leaning over to my right side, and I hugged her against my body, handing her the bomb-strapped wrist. I kept my attention on the obstacles before us and on maintaining my speed, but _god,_ I wanted to slow down. I was fast, and I was in pique health given my abilities, but even I had my limits.

I had been running at the speed of a rocket for over half an hour now, and I was tiring fast. I wouldn't be able to physically keep this up for much longer.

And now, Artemis had wheedled her way into this, and was working on my wrist with what appeared to be a multi-tool and some kind of laser, her face glistening with determination, sweat, and blood. While she was in no means heavy, her added weight and the fact that I had constricted my arms for her was severely constricting my stability, and the pedometer showed that I was dipping closer and closer to the 600 mark.

"Artemis, how much longer?" I panted, "I can't keep this up."

A hot fear washed over her as she faced me, before looking back down at the bomb. "I've almost got it. Please. Stay in there."

"Artemis, if this thing goes off, it's going to kill us both."

"Barry, I swear, just a few more wires," she pleaded dismally, and I sighed deeply, wishing I could stop for a quick breath.

"Do you even know what you're doing?" I yelled.

"-similar structure pattern to that of an electric hydrogen grenade," she shouted, the wind drowning out her words, "If I can disable the magnetic pendulum inside the pedometer, you can stop running, and we can remove the bomb with ease. Just run, Barry."

 _(Barry, don't stop,)_ a voice in my comms urged, _(Whatever you do, please for the love of god, do not stop.)_

 _(You can do this, Barry.)_

"Artemis, _please-_ "

"Come on... come on..." she murmured, working determinedly at the device on my wrist.

I had been washed over in my own sweat, and the cramps in my calves were threatening to kill me. Blurry spots were splotching my vision, and I was more than certain I would pass out after how much adrenaline I had been relying on.

The friction rubbed chafed burn marks across Artemis's cheeks, but she didn't seem to mind. Her attention was focused on the wrist bomb, and the wrist bomb alone.

"I got it! I got it!" She squealed, holding up a small wire, excitedly hitting my shoulder to get my attention, "Barry, you can stop running! Stop running!"

"You sure?!" I gasped.

"Yes!" She quipped eagerly, "It's over!"

I huffed as I slowly sputtered to a stop, before my imbalanced, weary jog turned into stumbles. Artemis hopped out of my arms just in time to watch me collapse onto the grass, drained of all energy and breathless.

 _(What happened?)_

 _(Did they die?)_

 _(No, you imp, didn't you hear? It worked. I am so proud of her.)_

 _(She did it! She actually did it!)_

 _(Oh my god... That was so intense, I thought Wells would get a migraine.)_

Artemis smiled as she ran over to where I was, and turned me so I was lying on my back, before pulling her body over mine and cupping my face in her hands, immediately covering my mouth with a kiss that left me feeling surprisingly blissful. I wasn't able to kiss her back, and I didn't know if that was because I was too enervated to do so, or because I just kept smiling like an idiot.

"We did it," she sighed contently, resting her head against the crook of my neck.

"You did it," I corrected, stroking a gloved finger against her cheek.

 _(Umm... should we turn the comm network off?)_

Artemis dropped a final peck on my nose before she stood back up again, a carefree smile playing on her lips despite her raw, wind-battered face, her wild dark hair now a damaged mess, and parts of her clothing shredded from wind resistance. She pulled me up to my feet, and embraced me. "Are you feeling better?"

I nodded, despite my limbs feeling like soft jelly.

"Come on, we still need to find your father and get that bomb off of you," she murmured, planting another kiss on the exposed part of my cheek.

 _(Also, your vitals aren't doing so great,)_ Caitlin advised, _(Respiration is strained, heartbeat is unbelievably erratic and offkey-)_

 _(Give him a minute to rest, would ya?)_ Cisco chided.

My mask was still on, I realized.

And so was my suit.

She gently pulled me forward by the hands and I hesitated. She shouldn't risk the possibility of being seen with me like this in public. And she shouldn't be putting herself in life-or-death situations because of my enemies.

"Barry, what's wrong?" She asked, pouting worriedly.

"Would it be of any benefit to me to ask you not to put yourself in danger like that for me again?" I inquired lamely, as we walked.

 _(Amen to that,)_ Wells voiced in my ears.

Annoyed, I shut off the comms.

Artemis smiled and looped an arm through mine, resting her head on my shoulder. "Probably not."

I couldn't repress grinning at her, and pulled my arm free to hug her from behind, and she giggled as I laced several kisses into her temples.

An urgent beeping sound being emitted from my wrist had us both pausing, fearful as we looked down at my hand.

The device's small dark screen which had originally read off miles per hour now digitally read _HAHAHA. NICE TRY_.

"The pedometer should be disabled," Artemis whispered, terrified, "I - I disconnected it from the bomb."

The lights on the tiny screen twitched.

 _30... 29..._

A countdown.

The pedometer _was_ disabled, I quickly understood. The bomb itself wasn't...

 _28..._

Panic burned through my chest, and I burst into my super speed again in an effort to get as far away from Artemis as possible.

 _27..._

Horror filled me as I realized she had somehow managed to latch her arms tightly around my neck and shoulders, wincing and desperately trying to cling onto me.

 _26..._

"Artemis, you need to let go!" I demanded, horrified as I surged through the city at top speed once more.

"No!" She seethed, tears streaking from her closed eyes, arms locked securely around me, "You can't do it!"

 _24..._

Tears filled my own eyes as I squeezed a strong arm in between our bodies, trying to wrench her off of me. "Artemis, please..."

"Barry, I - I can't lose you!" She whimpered, fighting against my efforts.

 _23..._

"Do you... do you still have the tools you used earlier?" I asked feebly.

"I - I dropped them," she sobbed into my shoulder, "I'm sorry. I'm so so sorry, Barry..."

 _21..._

Careening through the city, mind racing with possible places I could run where this bomb could go off without hurting anyone.

Memories flickered in my eyes.

My mother, lovingly brushing my cheek with the back of her finger.

My father, teaching me baseball and scientific terminology, calling me 'slugger'.

Blowing out birthday candles, playing with science kits.

Racing bikes down the street with Iris.

The night I lost my mother. Watching my father go to prison. Joe adopting me, Iris taking my hand to comfort me. Middle school, high school, college, Iris.

The coma, Caitlin and Cisco, becoming the Flash, Wells, running freely, Iris.

 _20..._

The day Artemis came in. Her sweet laugh. Holding her soft, elegant hands in my own. Racing through town while holding her in my arms, our first kiss, back in her old apartment, the way she cared for me when I'd be injured.

Her, excitedly running into my arms when I'd come back from work or a mission. The shadows that formed under her eyes after a long, tiring day at work, treating metahumans. How her dark, wild hair would sprawl over her back when she'd fall asleep, safe and warm in my arms.

Every meal we had together, every date, every kiss, the pain I had felt when I lost her in the other timeline, the contrasting joy and victory when I won her back in this one, all of her constant and unconditional love and support-

"I love you."

"Barry, what?" She called, looking up at me in fright and shock, her face millimeters from mine.

"I do. I've always loved you," I answered, lifting a hand to her face to capture her in one last loving kiss. One that would never be long enough...

"No," she stammered, turning away and tightening her arms around my neck, "Don't say it like that. This can't be goodbye."

 _19..._

My heart stopped in my chest when realization hit.

This is how it was all going to end.

A bomb, to take out the Flash, Edward Nygma wannabes reigning over the city, my father's whereabouts completely unknown, a town hall full of poisoned people I wasn't able to save.

Artemis sobbed quietly on my shoulder, hot, fat tears washing down on her face as she held onto me.

"I hope you'll find it in your heart to forgive me for what I'm about to do," I stated grimly.

"Barry, don't you _dare_ -" Artemis warned.

"But you need to live, and this is the only way I can ensure that," I concluded.

Horror glinted in her eyes, and with much reluctance and a heavy sadness pounding in my chest, I forced myself to tear her arms off of me before she could react, did the same with her legs.

I closed my eyes shut, unable to face her with what I was about to do, wanting to act quickly before my conscience would oppose me and I'd hesitate-

And I let her go.

 _18..._

I sped away from my actions before she could even scream, before she could even understand what I had done.

She'd live, I convinced myself. She would somehow miraculously survive. She had to. She _would._

She'd be injured, albeit severely, but she'd live, and that was all that mattered.

The wind blotted away my tears, and I quickly switched my communications network one last time.

 _(Barry!)_ Cisco immediately cried, _(What's going on? I thought you guys were safe! Why are you running out of the city?!)_

 _(Barry, Artemis, what's going on?)_ Wells asked harshly.

 _"_ The bomb. It's about to go off," I swallowed, "I... I just wanted to say my goodbyes."

 _(Goodbyes?!)_ Caitlin shouted.

 _17..._

 _(Barry, no,)_ Cisco replied.

"Cait, Cisco, Dr. Wells, I owe so much to all of y-"

 _(Is Artemis safe?)_ Wells interrupted, his tone almost panicked.

"I... yes. She's not with me."

 _14..._

 _(Good, then. I'm going to teach you how to get that bomb off of you.)_ Wells declared cryptically, _(I need you to run into a wall. Or more accurately, through one.)_

"Can I opt for the option to die quickly instead?" I muttered, irritated with his obscurity.

 _11..._

 _(If you vibrate at the natural frequency of air, your body your cells will be in a state of excitement that should allow you to phase right through that wall, leaving the bomb on the other side,)_ he ordered nonsensically, _(I know you can do this.)_

"I can't," I panted.

 _(Yes, you can,)_ Wells urged calmly, _(I believe in you. Now listen to me. Breathe, Barry. Breathe. Feel the air. Feel the wind on your face. Feel the harmony between yourself and your speed.)_

 _8..._

I obeyed. I forced myself to take a deep breath, and exhaled slowly, feet beating the road.

 _(Feel the ground, sliding underneath you as your legs push you forward. Feel your own strength,)_ he guided, as if he was in a trance, cautiously emphasizing each word, _(Barry, feel the lightning.)_

 _5..._

I switched my attention from myself onto my speed, commanding myself to move faster as the lightning danced right under my skin, empowering me.

 _(Feel it's power,)_ Wells advised, _(The electricity, pumping through your veins, crackling through you. Feel each nerve in your body, being shocked, bringing you to life, feeding you more energy.)_

It felt exhilarating in ways I could never describe.

I felt as if I was floating.

Somehow, I was able to manipulate the lightning through willpower alone.

How?

Had this kind of power really been within me this entire time?

 _2..._

 _(You're no longer you now. You're a part of something much greater,)_ Wells' calming voice advised, and I felt the intensity flicker within me as he spoke, _(You're a part of a speed force. It's yours now, now do it!)_

A loud _BOOM!_ went off and I suddenly shot myself into a wall, queasiness filling me as concrete replaced every cell of my body before I passed back out, my wrist feeling significantly lighter.

I gasped for air as I stopped vibrating, my body back to its normal still self.

 _(Barry?)_ Caitlin called.

"Oh, that felt weird," I exclaimed, paradoxically worn out yet suddenly refreshed, "I'm good. I'm alright."

 _(He's alive! Yes!)_ Cisco cheered, before he paused, _(Okay, umm...)_

 _(Artemis!)_ Wells yelled, _(Oh my god!)_

 _(Barry, ummm...)_ Cisco murmured, _(Get your butt back here, because... Because because.)_

Confused, I mustered whatever energy remained inside me and charged through the city back to where I had last been with Artemis, and became frantic when I couldn't find her. I went back to STAR Labs, and Caitlin immediately shoved an injection gun into my hands, pushing me back out the Cortex. "Hall full of poisoned people, remember? That's the antidote."

In the next few minutes, I had the people inside town hall cured of their poison, Jesse coughed up where he had hidden my father before I threw him to the police, and the Tricksters were arrested and put away for good.

I quickly arrived at Jesse's other secret hideout, and a booby trap immediately went off with my arrival. A horde of knives fell towards a man, tied to his seat on a chair directly underneath his incoming death, a bag drawn over his head.

I saved him in the span of a heartbeat.

Safely outside, ropes gone and face now uncovered, Dad gasped and took a step away from me when he saw who he was with, astounded.

I chuckled and pulled my mask back, smiling as I watched the disbelief in my father's eyes turn into acceptance, then twinkling love, and we both stepped forward to embrace each other.

"Oh, Barry," he laughed, wiping away a tear as he held me at arm's length, "Always knew you looked good in red."

###

"Oh shit," I murmured, warmth draining from my face as I returned to the Lab with my father. We both immediately ran to Caitlin's medical lab. Inside, Joe, Caitlin, Dr. Wells and Cisco were gathered around the bloodied body, quiet with her eyes closed on the bed, now dressed in a hospital gown.

Thick white bandages framed her face, tied tightly around her head where crimson was seeping through the white gauze. Her left shoulder was obviously dislocated, maybe broken, and Caitlin, in her lab coat and in a surgery mask, was cleaning the blood off of the skin. Insulin was being wired into her body from a standing rack, and an adjacent heartbeat monitor steadily beeped with zigzag lines.

Every inch of Artemis's exposed skin was covered in harsh scrapes and bleeding abrasions.

"So," Wells announced, touching his finger tips together, forcibly smiling, "Were you trying to _kill_ her?"

"N-no-" I faltered, heartbreak washing over me, "I would _never-_ "

"Barry, _you_ did this to her?" Dad demanded softly, appalled.

"Dad, no," I tried to explain, "She - she wouldn't let go of me, and I thought it would - it would be the right thing to do, and-"

"Explain what happened," Joe and Wells both ordered in stern unison.

"The - the bomb. It was about to go off, and I was trying to run away from her, but she caught onto me and wouldn't let go-"

"Barry, it was a pretty stupid move," Cisco murmured, looking away from her and up at me with sad eyes.

"You're _extremely_ lucky there isn't any permanent damage," Caitlin added quietly through her mask, now bandaging one of Artemis's limp hands.

"Who brought her here?" I asked, crinkling my brows.

Everyone looked back up at me with worried faces.

"What do you mean?" Caitlin questioned, frowning, "We thought you did."

 _"I_ did?" I repeated skeptically, shaking my head, "No, I went back to go look for her, but she wasn't there, so I came back to the lab and then you handed me the antidote to the poison, and I left..."

"Umm..." Cisco mumbled, concerned, "No, dude. _You_ brought her here. There was lightning, and _wham!_ \- you're out of here again, and Artemis is in the medical wing, and we had to call you back to come get the poison."

"It's not like there could've been another speedster, right?" Caitlin joked solemnly.

I was at loss for an answer.

Another speedster.

Me, the man in the yellow suit, and... and the boy. The kid with the messy black hair and the dark eyes, and the blue speed suit, who had helped teach me how to time travel, before he disappeared in this time line.

Dr. Wells scratched his head and scowled darkly, looking away.

As if in fear.

"Her right kneecap is definitely shattered," Dad stated, frowning at Artemis. Caitlin noticed the mangled joint, and watched as my father continued.

"And that compound fracture in her other leg will take at _least_ 6 weeks to heal, if she's lucky," he continued, forlorn, "She's not going to be able to walk on either of her legs for some time. Is there any spinal damage?"

Impressed by his quick diagnosis, Caitlin gently shook her head. "None that I can see, although there was a significantly large abrasion where I'm guessing she hit the...?"

"The ground," I dejectedly answered, my heartbreak turning into self-remorse, "Where she hit the ground."

The entire room fell silent, and I felt five sets of disappointed eyes burning into me as I looked down.

"Who _is_ she?" Dad murmured, furrowing his eyebrows.

Cisco's face lit up and he made a sound that was either a chuckle or a snort before he answered. "She's Barry's girlfriend, Dr. Allen."

"She's your _girlfriend?!_ " Dad repeated, with a small angered gasp, "And you willingly let this happen to her?! Is this how you treat a woman?!"

"Dad, she wouldn't listen to me!" I protested, before I realized how weak and moronic I sounded.

Dad raised an eyebrow and frowned.

Joe chuckled, and clasped Dad on the shoulder. "If there's any _one_ person on this earth who is more stubborn and stupidly braver than Barry, it's gotta be _her._ Artemis doesn't take shit from anyone, including the chief of police. Trust me. She gets into as much trouble as Barry does, but she's smart."

"In her defense, she did work the pedometer off of the bomb's composition, allowing your son to stop and rest, and most likely saving him from death by physical exertion," Wells added with a bright smile, which suddenly turned into a glower, "Before he so kindly dropped her mid-run and almost killed her."

"At any rate, she _is_ a true genius," Caitlin added proudly, as she set Artemis's knee, "Her inventions almost single-handedly turned this lab - and this city, and the field of science itself - around from what it used to be. With the help of the Flash, of course."

"I'd say it's the other way around," Wells countered, gently taking Artemis's free hand.

I frowned at him, before I decided not to let it bother me.

"Trust us, sir, your son is in _pretty_ good hands," Cisco chirped with a grin and a wink.

"She actually would've loved to meet you," I answered, recalling how determined Artemis had been earlier, when she was promising me nothing would happen to my father, "She was helping us look for you, earlier."

"Huh," Dad remarked, wrinkles at the corner of his eyes as he smiled, "Well, I'm very happy to hear that. I wish I could've said something to her, but she very clearly needs requires rest. What did you say was her name again?"

"Artemis," Joe replied, as we all left the medical wing,

"Artemis?" Dad retorted, as if testing the name on his tongue.

"Artemis Van Kleiss," Cisco explained, pleased.

Dad widened his eyes.

"You mean the woman from the news," he murmured.

"Yes," Cisco quipped with a smirk.

"My son is dating her."

"Your son is living with her, to be exact," Cisco repeated again with a nod. I rolled my eyes.

"How - how long has this been happening, Barry?" Dad asked incredulously, gently punching my arm, "You never told me about her..."

"It's only been a few months, Dad..." I answered sheepishly, rubbing the back of my neck, "We... actually weren't dating the last time I met you."

Dad pouted, and curiously narrowed his eyes. "You've only been together a few months and you're already _living_ with her? Isn't that a bit... well, _fast?"_

"Oh, don't worry," Cisco assured awkwardly, hooking an elbow over my shoulder and patting my back, "They know what they're doing. Trust me. They're not total idiots around each other."

"Do you have any idea how many criminals Iron Heights has gained because of her?" Dad stammered, "Former metahumans, and thugs, and people who used to have powers-"

"We do, actually," I responded confidently, "We all put them away together."

"It all started right here," Cisco answered knowingly, hooking his elbow over my shoulder, "STAR Labs. Part time international research powerhouse. Part time secret superhero operations base."

Dad cracked a grin, and shook his head, chuckling in disbelief. "I can't actually believe this. The girlfriend, the superpowers... You've always been such a sweet kid. Now you've become something so _astounding,_ I can't even begin to wrap my head around who you are... But I think deep down, I knew there would be something really special about you one day."

I smiled as his words warmed my heart.

"What's it like, running, like a bat out of hell?" Dad inquired.

I sighed, and grinned. "It's indescribable. There's no feeling like it."

Dad smiled warmly at me, and turned around, facing the others. "You're all heroes, in my book. Thank you all for everything you've done for my son. Dr. Caitlin, Cisco, Joseph..." He stepped towards Well's wheelchair, holding out his hand. "Especially you, Dr. Harrison. I can't begin to tell you what it means to know that Barry has someone like you, guiding him."

Wells accepted the handshake, and smiled back. "Well, your son is an extraordinary man, Dr. Allen," he retorted with a cold grin, "I will always do everything in my power to ensure his future."

I felt the need to fake a cough.

I held it back.

"Dr. Allen?" Caitlin called out, opening her arms, "I'm feeling the need to give you a hug."

"Absolutely. I will always accept hugs from Barry's friends," he answered, embracing Caitlin. He smiled kindly and held his hand out to Cisco for a handshake, before Cisco threw his arms around him to his surprise, and Dad laughed quietly before he hugged me one last time as well, touching my face. "Take care of yourself, slugger. And thank you for saving me. And - for the love of Christ - _please_ be nice to your girlfriend! I hope to see her on her feet, up and about the next time I see her. And stay out of trouble, Barry. All of you."

"We will, Dad," I replied, and Dad's eyes twinkled as he patted my face, before sighing and walking over to Joe.

"Alright, it's time, Joe," he stated, holding his fists out for the handcuffs.

Joe shook his head. "No."

"No?" Dad remarked, confused.

"No," Joe asserted, and the two men turned out to walk away.

My heart warmed at the sight of Dad, not in handcuffs despite being led away by a cop.

"Barry?" Caitlin asked behind me.

I turned to watch her walk towards me, arms open again. "You look like you could use a hug too."

I smiled and sighed as she wrapped her arms around me for a warm embrace.

"Well, today was a rough day," Wells concluded, wheeling off back towards the medical labs, "I'll be with Artemis, if any of you need me."

"I'm coming too-" I protested, but Wells held a hand up at me, a forbidding light in his eyes.

" _No._ You need your rest as well," he grumbled, "You're not coming with me. I'll call you if she wakes up."

"What?" But my protests died on my lips as Wells wheeled off and left the door ajar, quietly sitting in the room, facing her.

Cisco let out a low whistle as he stood next to me, watching him.

"He's so strange," I murmured, irritated.

Caitlin crossed her arms and nodded her head.

"Did you guys hear him, when he called Artemis _his_ Artemis, when he was telling me to make sure she wouldn't get hurt?" I muttered, annoyed, "Why would he call her _his?_ She's not his anything."

Caitlin shrugged. "Maybe... maybe it was just a flub of the tongue? Talking fast, in the spur of the moment, accidentally saying something wrong?"

I scowled and shook my head. "It... sounded a bit too precise for it to be an accident. He was threatening _me_ for her safety. He meant what he said."

"Hey, you wanna talk about precision, talk about teaching you how to phase through a wall," Cisco praised quietly, amazed, "I mean, I never could've thought of that. That was pure Einstein stuff right there. And he did it, all behind a desk, through a speaker, in under a time limit. And you survived. It was incredible."

"So what's our next move?" Caitlin questioned, with a half-shrug, "I mean, how would Artemis react to that? She'd certainly remain suspicious of Wells, if she could've seen him teaching you so expertly. What do we do with this information?"

I scowled again, as I watched Wells place a wet cloth over Artemis's forehead.

Something about him and Artemis wasn't right.

He invited her to STAR Labs with open arms when she'd arrived - he had arranged every detail of her arrival, as a matter of fact - but once she began working, he loathed her presence. He discouraged all of us from including her in our operations, strictly forbidding any revelations.

Then, to everyone's surprise, when her and I squared everything off and became a couple, he... almost enjoyed knowing that. He rarely spoke ill of us, and approved of our being together.

You don't change your mind like that overnight.

After she had worked here for a few months and became incredibly successful with metahuman genome transmutation, Wells changed again.

From my point of view, he was trying to pull her away from me. And he admitted it openly yesterday. His eyes tended to soften when she was in the room, and he often gave her the "I'm so proud of everything you've done" and "You've truly lived up to your family legacy" lectures, and she was treated noticeably different from Cisco, Caitlin, and myself. More warmth, more freedom and leeway, and far more protectiveness and possessiveness.

And he considered us to be almost like children to him...

Almost.

"At this point, I'd like to make it very clear that I no longer trust that man," I announced quietly.

Cisco and Caitlin both looked to me with shock on their faces, but said nothing.

My scowl deepened as I realized something else.

"Do you guys remember the way he was talking to me, when I had the bomb on my wrist?" I inquired.

They nodded nervously.

"The way he described the lightning and the wind, and the energy..." I explained, "It was a little too specific for comfort. Even I couldn't put the feeling in words, and _I'm_ the speedster here, not Wells."

"Barry, what are you saying?" Cisco asked softly.

"It... felt like he was talking from experience," I concluded anxiously.

 _CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!_

Cisco immediately turned around, facing the screens, and beside him, Caitlin began typing something into the main computer.

"It's a reading from the metahuman geo-locator," she asserted.

"Barry. Metahuman. On the roof," Cisco continued, typing quickly, "Go."

I charged back into my suit, papers floating around in the air like slow confetti, and instantly made my way up the roof, before I stopped abruptly, my breath hitching from shock.

The other speedster.

He had his hands in the pockets of his dark oversized jacket, and he was silently studying the nighttime skyline, the wind tousling through his messy black hair.

He was unusually scrawny, but I knew better than to assume he'd be weak by correlation.

Only yesterday, he had been running at speeds that I would never be able to achieve naturally.

"Hey," he greeted casually, expressionlessly facing me for only a second before he was staring out at the city again, "You know... in my day, the city gets so much more jam-packed. There are almost twice as many skyscrapers, and commute by foot becomes next to impossible, especially for a speedster trying to fit in with the average pedestrian. The traffic really does clog up the city map. So, take my advice. When - sorry, I meant 'if' - _If_ you ever have a son, try and buy him a car when he becomes of driving age? Please? Pretty please?"

I widened my eyes. "Umm..."

"You know you don't need to be in your suit," he answered easily, as if he was amused by the sight of me, standing there with my mouth gaping open, "I mean you no harm."

"What the hell...?" I stuttered.

"I'll be right here," he promised, holding up his arms in surrender, "I won't disappear like I did yesterday. I actually need to talk to you."

I tensed, but disappeared in a moment's notice and returned to him in my usual clothes. He was still right where I left him.

"So," he began, walking towards me, "Da- I mean, Barry-"

"Don't you 'so Barry' me," I interjected awkwardly, "I have no idea who you are. Or where you're from. You can't just pop into Central City out of the blue, reveal yourself to be a speedster, teach me how to save the world from D-day, then strike up a conversation with me like you've known me your whole life..."

"Wow," he amazed, an innocent grin splitting across his pale face, "You're _really_ awkward, even at this age."

"What?"

He grinned, and kicked a stone by his foot, still smiling like a child. "Okay, I get your confusion and all, but see here," he replied with a dismissive shrug and now a brighter smile, "I _have_ known you my whole life. You just haven't met me yet. Not in this timeline, anyway. I helped you, but only because I-"

"There are other timelines?" I interrupted, "Other than the one I came from? With Mark Mardon, and-"

"Yup," he chirped, "And you can travel to them by will. Just keep an eye out for timeline deformities, and deviations and such, and of course, evil speedsters. Dr. Alchemy is a big-time jerk, and so is the Black Flash, and so is Inertia, and Uncle Daniel deserves to rot in his grave- but Jessie's pretty cool. And so is Uncle Wally. He's not so bad. Except he keeps calling me 'Baby Speed'. I hate that."

"Who's Wally?" I stuttered, "And did you say Inertia? And Black Flash? Are they speedsters? What's-"

"Aaand I let out more information than I should have," the boy answered, snapping his fingers in annoyance, "Can't do that. Sorry. You'll have to learn who those people are on your own. You didn't hear it from me."

I furrowed my eyebrows as I took a step towards him. "Who are you, exactly?"

He shrugged again, wearing his grin once more. "I am who I am and I am who I was and I am who I will always be."

I blinked, dumbfounded.

He chuckled at my confusion before looking back up at me.

"Hey, if you don't mind, can we go to Big Belly Burger and talk there?" He asked innocently.

"What?"

"Big... Belly...Burger?" he repeated, slowly enunciating each word, "You know. The fast food place down on Sixth, next to the laundromat? I'm hungry. You're supposed to buy me dinner."

"I'm _supposed_ to?!" I asked incredulously.

"No duh, Sherlock," the kid muttered, rolling his dark eyes, "Of course you're supposed to. You're my - umm. Never mind. Uhh. Look, could you just do it, please? The money that I have won't be accepted - the National Treasury hasn't really even invented it yet, to be honest, and I'm starving."

"Fine," I muttered, before I glared at him as he brushed past me, "I'll buy you dinner. But I want answers. And you're going to give them to me."

He raised an eyebrow, and slipped his hands back into his pockets. "You know, you're trying really hard to be all strict and scary and threatening, and it's really not working, because you're about as terrifying as a baby calico kitten. You should probably work on your fear aesthetic before you go off and face a real villain."

I frowned, and he winked before speeding off of the roof into the city, bright blue lightning stringing behind him.

###

Forty minutes and sixty-two dollars worth of crispy chicken burgers and milkshakes later, and I was still stumped as to who this kid was, aside from him being the one who had rescued Artemis and taken her to the Lab.

"How... how did you know she was in danger?" I asked, slightly shocked.

He shrugged, and kicked his feet up onto the table. "Guess you could say I have a tendency to notice when she's in danger?"

He plowed through greasy burgers like nobody's business as we spoke, each answer leaving me more confused as ever.

Apparently, he time-traveled to my timeline a lot, even though his father back in the future would probably ground him for the rest of his life for it, because it was dangerous and he could wipe himself from existence. He admitted he was the one who had come back a few months ago, when Cisco and I had caught a girl named Priscilla in our Cortex. He was on "unfinished business."

"What can I say?" He confessed with an evil glint in his eye as he grinned, "I live for danger."

"No wonder your father's worried sick about you," I replied, unnerved, "You're insane."

"You think _I'm_ insane?" He asked with a snort of a laugh, "Wait til you meet the clown couple in Gotham."

He went on to tell me that most of his family was comprised of speedsters. Both parents had super speed, and so did his dad's stepbrother, and they had taught him everything he had knew about super speed, ultimately making him very powerful despite his young age. He had half-siblings who were speedsters too. Twins, in fact, both of whom ended up getting him into trouble a lot, but made for fond memories.

His mother was from a unique bloodline, though, and it wasn't exactly one he was proud of, because his "family quarrels" tended to be "murderous."

"Is... is that why you keep talking about her in the past tense?" I inquired carefully.

He nodded silently.

"What... what happened to her?" I dared myself to ask.

"The Reverse Flash happened," he murmured, absentmindedly folding a piece of wax paper into origami.

"You know the Reverse Flash too?" I questioned incredulously.

He nodded again, before he forced a short, harsh laugh. "He's... He's my maternal grandfather."

Wet chills washed down my spine, and I resisted the urge to run into him and pin him down, curl my hands around his neck.

I was casually eating dinner with someone close to my enemy.

Someone, who had connections to the man who had murdered my mother. Put my father in jail. Ruined mine and Artemis's lives.

"The Reverse Flash wasn't exactly proud of some of the choices my mother made, despite the fact that she was his daughter. He actually hated the man she fell in love with, who is my father, and he resents my birth. He's tried to kill me several times," the boy continued, his sad tone stopping my rushed anger, "And in this timeline, one of his goals is not only to destroy you, but also to prevent me being born, because I ruin his plans. In the future, he finds a way to return, and he murders my mother out of spite when he finds out his plans failed because of me. He's my enemy as well, Barry."

"He - he murders his own daughter?!" I asked, astounded. And scared.

"His need for vengeance knows no boundaries," the boy replied darkly, "He'll kill everyone and anyone who tries to put him down."

Guilt coursed through me.

Mothers of speedsters were easy targets for homicides, it seemed.

I placed a hand on his shoulder, out of need to console him.

He was no enemy.

He was going through the same thing I did - maybe a worse version.

"It's... It's okay," he answered hesitantly, brushing my hand off, forcing a smile, "You don't need to worry about me, because I won't let it happen. I can time-travel. I'm gonna fix the past. I can save her."

"Are you sure?" I murmured.

"I'm confident in my abilities," he mumbled, more to himself than to me, as he still picked at the paper, "Call it bad genetics, but I'm also too stubborn to back down, and that may or may not be the death of me, but it'll be okay... I can outsmart him. I will. He needs to be beaten at his own game."

"Do you... do you know who the Reverse Flash is?" I asked, "I have to stop him too. He got away with murdering my mother, and my girlfriend's as well. He's threatened both of our lives. Do you-"

"Oh, he has _plenty_ of beef with you, Barry," he interrupted, eyes darkening with concern, "You're the center of it all. He hates you, and watches your every move like a hawk. You're his origin story, and his enemy, and he is who he is because he wants to be like you, but he can't be. Every second of his life is geared towards taking you down so he can be the only Flash. He's manipulative and cryptic, and because of this, he's very very afraid of you, and he murdered your mother so he could traumatize you as a child, just like how he murdered mine. But there _is_ a silver lining. You and I are both strong. And blood relative or not, I know where I stand. I always have. There's no way I can let him win."

I grimaced, and an icy mixture of pain and anger fleeted through me.

I really didn't want to believe this.

The couple walking past our table pulled their child away when they saw that the boy had folded the wrapping paper into a perfect origami knife.

His broody scowl wasn't exactly helping either.

"Kind of off topic, but you look pretty familiar," I found myself stating quietly.

I couldn't put my finger on it, but he did look as if I'd seen him before. Or perhaps someone he was related to. Something about his bleak, pale skin, the way his short black hair was kind of unkempt, and the way he glowered, with those deep, dark eyes, and that tall, thin frame...

As if my cousin Todd had decided to go for a goth, sleep-deprived look.

He broke into a knowing smirk, crooked to one side. Again, oddly relaxed.

"Is it because I stole your jacket?" He joked.

"You stole my what?" I repeated idiotically.

He smiled and removed the black coat he was wearing, folded it, and handed it back to me, wearing a beige full-sleeved tee underneath. "Your jacket. I kinda have a reputation for stealing things from people I know. Clothing. Food. Money," he listed, before he pulled something out of his jeans pocket and threw it at me. I instinctively reached out to catch it, and small, hard metal hit my palm.

"Car keys included," he continued with an innocent-enough smile, as I gawked at the keys in my hand, "Cleared your parking ticket. You'll find your car in your driveway. Thought I'd pay you back for the dinner."

"How?!-"

"Time travel, remember?" He retorted easily, "What good are these powers if I can't use them to my own advantage? If I'm wandering about on my own, it's good to have a bit of extra protection."

I kind of felt bad, and watched the young teen spin the paper dagger in his fingers, before he sighed and unfolded it.

"You said you were wandering about on your own?" I asked, "Would you like someplace to stay? I mean, I'd feel better knowing you were safe, until you could get back home. My girlfriend won't really mind..."

He smiled warmly, as he stood up, and I did so as well, and we left the restaurant, walking down the sidewalk in the city's nighttime loneliness. "That's cute. Thanks, but no thanks. I think my mission here is coming to an end. I helped you save everyone from the other timeline, and Artemis is safe again. I ought to be going back now, so I guess this is goodbye - for now at least."

"You're leaving, just like that?" I asked, slightly wistful.

"Well, yeah," he answered, shrugging as if it should have been obvious, "See, my dad is under the impression that I went on a week-long camping trip, and if he finds out I lied, I'm pretty much dead."

I laughed. "Hey, kid, take it from someone who's lived with a cop for 15 years," I advised, as we walked, "You do _not_ want to be messing with a parent figure's trust in you."

"Couldn't have said it better myself," he answered, with a small devilish grin, before he held out his hand for a handshake, "We'll meet again soon."

"I have no idea who you are, where you're from, or what your name is, but okay," I replied awkwardly, grasping and shaking his hand before letting go.

"You'll know me when you see me," he answered, before saluting with two fingers and turning on his heels, breaking into an energetic run that soon crackled over with electricity and blue lightning.

Electricity and blue lightning, I remembered, before I urgently broke into my own speed and chased after him, careening through the city behind him.

"Wait!" I called out once he came into view again, desperately hoping he'd hear me, "There's more I need to know!"

He quickly turned around and slowed down, worry painted all over his face once he stopped. "What's wrong?" He asked, frightened, huffing to catch his breath, "Was there something coming after us? Are - are we in danger?"

"No, I just needed to ask you something before you left," I stammered anxiously.

His face contorted into a glare. "Barry, are you serious?!" He demanded angrily, "I was about to enter the Speed Force and jump through time. Do you have any idea how _dangerous_ it is to distract me during that process? If I had stopped a second later or too soon, I could've been killed in the time breach!"

"I'm - I'm sorry," I responded shakily, "I didn't know..."

"You _don't_ know about the Speed Force?" He asked incredulously.

"No?"

"What has Wells been teaching you, then?" He roared, "How can you be the Flash - a _speedster_ \- and not know about the Speed Force?!"

"It's - what is it?"

"You think you're a metahuman," he dictated, shaking his head no, "You're not. You and I are of a unique breed of humans, who have access to a living entity of energy known as the Speed Force. It's responsible for giving us our speed, and our other powers. Phasing. Jumping through time. Defying physics. It protects us from burning up when we're disobeying the laws of friction and kinematics. It's not something science can study. It's a symbiotic relationship between man and deity. The more you trust the Speed Force's powers, the more it will grow within you, and allow you to become stronger."

"That - that actually makes sense," I rmused out loud, "My power has grown over time, with training and practice and all that, but-"

"But also because it's a living force of energy," he completed for me, "Correct. Your powers grow more powerful over time, as you learn to trust the Force and focus on its powers."

"That's how I phased through that wall today," I realized, remembering how Wells had talked me into concentrating on my powers and using them to save myself.

"Yes, and that's how you fixed the other timeline last night," he continued, "You were hit by lightning, but you _didn't_ became a metahuman, Barry. The unique reaction with the lightning, chemicals and dark matter helped you access the Speed Force. You're a human manifestation of its power, but you're also its guardian. It chooses certain people - myself included - who will protect it from being abused by those who use its powers for evil."

"Those who abuse its power?" I repeated.

"Yes. Hunter Zolomon. Albert Desmond. Daniel West. Max Mercury. You don't know them yet, but they are amongst the worst abusers of the Speed Force's powers, and by association, they will be amongst your worst enemies."

"What about the Reverse Flash?" I asked, forcing my heartbeat not to patter out of control, "Did the Speed Force choose him too?"

"No, it didn't," he answered, "He's a genius physicist from the 25th century. He replicated the accident that allowed you to access the Speed Force so he could have your powers. He traveled back through time in order to kill you, so he could be the only user of the Speed Force's energy, but he failed, and killed your mother instead to traumatize you. Now he's stranded in this century, pretending to be someone else, with a new identity so he can hide safely. His new goals are to make you stronger so you can take him back, where he'll have another surefire shot at killing you, and he has a strong hold on Artemis's life as well. He's the most manipulative and dangerous son of a bitch you'll ever meet, and I _hate_ being his grandson, having his blood in my veins and knowing everything he has done to me and my family."

Angry chills washed over me, as I registered what he said.

 _He traveled back through time in order to kill you, so he could be the only user of the Speed Force's energy, but he failed, and killed your mother instead to traumatize you._

 _He's stranded in this century, pretending to be someone else, with a new identity so he can hide safely._

 _His new goals are to make you stronger so you can take him back, where he'll have another surefire shot at killing you, and he has a strong hold on Artemis's life as well._

 _He's the most manipulative and dangerous son of a bitch you'll ever meet._

"Tell me who he is, then," I ordered, "If I'm supposed to _protect_ this - this _Speed_ Force, and use its power to save lives, then I need to know who I have to stop. I want to end this carnage just as much as you do. I have to know what his new identity is."

He tensed and scowled, as if he was thinking over the consequences of confessing, weighing this new decision over in head.

"Just - just tell me who he is," I asked again, "I know enough about the Speed Force and about my own abilities. Please just tell me who he is before you go back. You can't leave, knowing he's still controlling my life, and let me and Artemis suffer at his hands. If I stop him now, then I might actually prevent your mother's death. You won't have to live the life I'm living right now."

He hesitated again.

"Do you know who he is?" I pressured, "Do you know what his new name is, in this century?"

"I do," he finally admitted, a small sad smile splitting over his face.

An evil victorious light glinted in his eyes as he took a step back, away from me.

"It's Harrison Wells."

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 **alright, so i'm sorry for the super late update :P**

 **these past few weeks were busy as hell, and this chapter was probably one of the heaviest ones in the story, but i got through :)**

 **please leave a review if you enjoyed, and let me know what you thought! :D**

 **~ DBV**


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